A haunting and upsetting portrait of Michael Jackson's final months has now been painted by Grace Rwaramba, a nanny who cared for his three children.
In an interview with The Times of London, Rwaramba said she routinely pumped his stomach after he had ingested a dangerous combination of drugs.
"I had to pump his stomach so many times. He always mixed so much of it," Grace Rwaramba, 42, said. "There was one period that it was so bad that I didn't let the children see him ... He always ate too little and mixed too much."
Rwaramba, who is originally from Rwanda, is en route to L.A. where she will be interviewed by the LAPD, which is investigating why Michael Jackson died.
Having once proposed a drug invention for Michael, and contacting his mother Katherine and sister Janet for their help with it, the nanny instead got fired:
"He didn't want to listen. That was one of the times he let me go."
An employee of Michael Jackson's for more than a decade, Grace Rwaramba started as an office assistant to the pop star before becoming a nanny to his three children.
Jackson's three children are Michael Joseph Jackson, Jr., 12 (also known as Prince Michael Jackson), Paris Michael Katherine Jackson, 11, and Prince Michael Jackson II (a.k.a. Blanket), 7. Debbie Rowe is the mother of the elder two.
Rwaramba was last fired by Michael in December 2008, and claims that when she visited the three children in April, she personally had to buy the balloons for Paris' birthday party because Michael Jackson was so broke.
"Michael had no idea about money," she says, backing up claims that Jackson was rumored to be awash in about $400 million in debt at the time of his death.
According to Rwaramba, on Friday, the day after Michael died, his mother Katherine called her from Michael's L.A. house and asked where he kept his cash.
"She said, 'Grace, the children are all crying. They are asking about you. They can't believe that their father died. Grace, you remember Michael used to hide cash at the house. I am here. Where can it be?'"
Rwaramba advised looking "at the garbage bags and under the carpets."
Then, said the former nanny, "She said, 'Grace, where are you? Come. I will pick you up from the airport.' She sounded so strong. So strong!"
Jackson's autopsy results revealed an unknown cause of death. Toxicology testing should help establish more concrete answer, but will take weeks.
