On Tuesday, Jan. 31, the paramedic arrived at the home of Robert Carter and his third wife, Ginger, in Mayville, N.Y., to find his 25-year-old daughter, Leslie Carter, unresponsive to their attempts to revive her.
Upon arriving on the scene, the paramedics found three types of prescription medication near her unconscious body: olanzapine (used to treat schizophrenia and bipolar disorder), cyclobenzaprine (a muscle relaxer), and alprazolam (Xanax, anti-anxiety medication). They assumed an overdose and transported her to Westfield Memorial Hospital in Westfield, N.Y., where she was pronounced dead on arrival.
Leslie Carter had recently moved to the Upstate New York from Toronto, where she had lived since 2008 with her husband, Mike Ashton. She brought her 10-month-old daughter, Alyssa Jane Ashton, with her to stay with her father while she weaned herself off her prescription medication. She had been battling an addiction to prescription medication for quite some time and was looking forward to kicking it.
Leslie Carter came from a musical background. Her older brother, Nick Carter, rose to fame in the band the Backstreet Boys and her younger brother, Aaron Carter, has released solo albums (was not in a band). She signed a deal with DreamWorks Records in 1999 but she had never made an album, according to the New York Daily News. She was on an E! reality show called “The House of Carters” with her family and her 2001 single “Like Wow!?” was on the Shrek soundtrack.
Leslie Carter was the third born out of five children by her father, Robert Carter, and his second wife, Jane Carter: Nick (1980), Bobbie Jean (1982), and twins Aaron and Angela (1987) Carter. She also has two half siblings: an older half-sister, Virginia (Ginger) Carter born in 1972, from her father’s first wife and a younger half-brother from her father’s third and current wife who was born in 2004.
The results of an autopsy haven’t been released to the public yet but it is still presumed that her death was the result of an overdose. A singer who has never released an album will now never get to.