Kiersten Cerveny died from cocaine overdose: police source

Preliminary autopsy findings show a Long Island mom found in the vestibule of a Chelsea apartment building likely died of a cocaine overdose — not murder, a police source said.

“Based on the preliminary finds, we are not treating this as a homicide case,” the source said Monday. “There is nothing at this point to suggest criminal activity. We have no indication, so far, of any force issue in her death.”

The findings, according to the source, are “consistent with cocaine use.”

Kiersten Cerveny, a married dermatologist, met with friends at a downtown hotel around 6:30 p.m. Saturday, sources told the Daily News. They drank, snorted cocaine and partied in her room, the sources said. The next 14 hours reveal a tragic tale of a 38-year-old Manhasset, L.I., mother of three — a dermatologist and assistant professor by day and a wild child by night.


Around 2 a.m. Sunday, Cerveny was at a Lower East Side bar where she and her friends continued to party, sources said. It was there that Cerveny met up with Marc Johnson, a pal and TV producer. Johnson and Cerveny left somewhere between 3:30 a.m. and 4 a.m. Sunday, and took a cab to Chelsea to see James (Pepsi) Holder, arriving around 4:25 a.m., sources said.


Four hours later, Holder and Johnson were seen dragging the woman to the front door of the W. 16th St. building, the sources said. Johnson tried to perform CPR on the lifeless woman and called 911 after “she turned blue,” he told detectives.

Johnson stuck around until EMS arrived, directing them to the lobby where Cerveny was wedged between two sets of doors, sources said. Both men were gone by the time cops arrived, a police source said. Cerveny was fully clothed except for her panties, which were in her purse, sources said.

At 9:12 a.m., she was dead.

Johnson, 51, is currently producing "The Deuce," an HBO pilot for a series about New York's porn industry in the 1970s and 80s, starring James Franco.

He was questioned by detectives, but has not been charged with a crime, sources said.

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