Natalie Cole‘s son was reportedly found dead on Monday at the age of 39.
According to TMZ, the body of Robert Yancy was found in his San Fernando Valley apartment by a friend who decided to check up on him after he had not heard from him for a few days.
At around 2:30 a.m., family members were reportedly contacted and told that Yancy had died of a heart attack. While his death is currently being listed as stemming from natural causes, the autopsy still needs to be completed, with a toxicology report.
However, despite the fact that Cole publicly and famously battled with drugs addiction up until she died in 2015, family members insist that he never abused drugs and that he was “turning his life around.”
Yancy’s father died at age 34 of a heart attack, suggesting that heart disease is a hereditary problem in his family.