It has been eight months since Jim Irsay passed away, and now a major development regarding it has emerged.
On Thursday, the FBI announced that it was opening an investigation into the late Indianapolis Colts owner’s death. It will largely center on his personal doctor Harry Haroutunian, who pad prescribed him with pain pills and ketamine in the final months of his life.
The FBI is investigating Colts owner Jim Irsay’s death & the doctor who oversaw his addition recovery treatment. In August, we reported that people close to Irsay were concerned about how much opioids & ketamine Dr. Harry Haroutunian was prescribing.
The impending investigation stems from a federal grand jury subpoena, which had been issued earlier this month by the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. Federal agents had also gone to Indianapolis to interview people close to Irsay.
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When asked for comment, a spokeswoman for the FBI’s Los Angeles field office did not respond. Meanwhile, a spokesman for the Beverly Hills Police Department, which initially investigated Irsay’s death, denied having been contacted by the FBI.
The Colts themselves denied having had any interaction with the agency, as per chief legal officer Dan Emerson:
“I do understand that there have been some subpoenas provided but not to me, the Colts or any of our current employees.”
Haroutunian also did not respond when asked for comment.
How did Jim Irsay die? A recap of the circumstances behind former Colts owner’s passing
At the time of his death in May 2025, Jim Irsay was vacationing at the Beverly Hills Hotel. Harry Haroutunian was staying with him at the time, and certified his death as having been caused by cardiac arrest without performing an autopsy. The investigation was closed a few days later.
Three months later, however, an investigative report by the Washington Post revealed that Irsay had actually secretly relapsed and was receiving opioid pills and ketamine injections in amounts that alarmed some people close to him.
In particular, a review of images of pill bottles showed that he received at least 200 opioid pills days before he suffered two overdoses in December 2023. Haroutunian later also started injecting him with ketamine, according to witnesses.
In an interview, the doctor said:
“I dedicated 18 months of my life to try to care for him … as a brother. We did everything we could to make him as comfortable as possible.”
Haroutunian, a former physician-director and spokesman for the Betty Ford Center in Riverside, California, counts Aerosmith lead vocalist Steven among his list of other past clients.