A mysterious twist in the death of celebrity chef Jock Zonfrillo has emerged nearly a year after he was found dead in a hotel room in Australia.
The 46-year-old MasterChef star was found unresponsive in Melbourne’s Zagame’s House hotel at 2am in April last year after police were called to perform a welfare check.
Zonfrillo’s wife Lauren is said to have made the desperate plea to the police after her husband missed a string of phone calls.
While a cause of death was not revealed at the time, police found no drug paraphernalia and his passing was not deemed suspicious.
However, almost ten months on, Daily Mail has revealed his shock passing is still being probed by the coroner.
“The death of Jock Zonfrillo remains under investigation by the coroner,” a spokesperson for the Coroner’s Court of Victoria told Daily Mail Australia.
“This is an active investigation.”
Zonfrillo’s wife keeps his memory alive and posts regularly on his Instagram account.
Just days ago, she shared beautiful photos of the couple with MasterChef judge Andy Cook.
“One year ago. Our last dinner together before we flew to Rome. We had the saké pairing. Obviously,” she captioned the post.“I always loved these two, but never more than now.“(These are the worst photos ever taken, but I treasure them.) Loz.”
The premiere of season 15 of the popular cooking show had been scheduled to screen the day Zonfrillo was found dead but was postponed by Network 10 until his wife and family gave the go-ahead.
Australians were left in tears as they watched the beloved chef do what he loved on their TV screens when it finally aired a week later.
“Watched #MasterChefAU. Cried three times during the episode,” one Twitter user said.
“Growing up with the show, and it being such an inspiration, this season’s gonna be a hard watch,” another said.