According to the report, the cause of death was acute methadone intoxication. Hwang was found dead in a Morgan Hill area motel on Sept. 29, little more than a month after his wife, adult performer Haley Paige, died from unexplained causes while on a road trip with Hwang.
The couple had stopped at the Motel 6 in King City, when Hwang claimed that he found Paige unresponsive and rushed her to the local Mee Memorial Hospital, where she was declared dead in the emergency room. At the time, police said Hwang was “implicated” in the death of Paige, and an investigation was ongoing.
Toxicology results from Paige’s autopsy showed minimal amounts of methadone were present, but a cause of death has not been determined.
Former industry blogger Luke Ford was quoted in the Gilroy Dispatch article, and said that in interviews with Hwang, the topics of death and suicide were common.
"This was a man who talked freely and coldly about death, about killing himself and others, so it seems sadly inevitable," Ford said. "When I interviewed him several years ago, he told me that if I ever told his mother about his working in the porn industry, he would kill me. This is a theme that was ever present in his life."
Ford also was quoted as saying that Hwang’s peers in the industry are likely to have forgotten about his death.
"The product is pretty disposable, the people who are making the product usually understand that this is the way it is," Ford said. "It desensitizes people to each other and to the value of life. That doesn't mean there aren't people out there mourning his death, probably more mourning her death, but this is a brutal, desensitizing industry, a meat grinder. It's not an industry that inculcates tenderness, love, and kindness and compassion for others."
