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Lawyer: Addiction Doctor On 'Life-Saving Mission' To Help Prince Before Music Legend's Death

MINNEAPOLIS (CBSNewYork) -- The U.S. Attorneys Office in Minnesota and the Drug Enforcement Administration have officially opened an investigation into who may have provided prescription pills to Prince.

The artist's team told an addiction specialist that Prince was "dealing with a grave medical emergency" the night before he died.

Prince's team contacted the addiction specialist, Dr. Howard Kornfeld, who runs Recovery Without Walls in California, just one day before his death, CBS2's Alice Gainer reported.

An attorney for Kornfeld said the doctor was not able to travel immediately to Minnesota, so he arranged for a Minnesota doctor to evaluate Prince the next morning. But he never showed up, according to reports.

MORE: Prince To Be Added To Apollo Theater's Walk Of Fame

Kornfeld also put his son Andrew, a practice consultant with the clinic, on a red-eye flight to Minnesota to be there that day. But when Andrew Kornfeld got to the Paisley Park compound, the attorney said Prince was nowhere to be found.

"The staff representatives found him in an elevator unconscious. one of the staff members started screaming. Andrew heard the screams and went to the elevator where he saw that Prince was unconscious," attorney William Mauzy said.

The lawyer said Andrew Kornfeld is the one who dialed 911. Investigators are trying to figure out whether Prince died from an overdose. A small amount of buprenorphine -- medication to treat opiate addiction -- was found in Andrew Kornfeld's backpack.

"Andrew had in his possession small pills. Those pills were to be delivered to the Minnesota doctor. There were no pills - any type of medication - given to Prince by Andrew or by Howard. Those pills were taken into possession by the county sheriff," the attorney said.

On Tuesday, the Carver County Sheriff's Office released a log of dozens of emergency calls to Prince's home. In June 2011, the report said a "reporting person" was concerned about Prince's cocaine use. The report claims "he advised her last year in Germany that he cannot control his habit and she was advised to report it."

Officers were unable to investigate since the "information is a year old and she did not specify Prince is in immediate danger."

Authorities have not released a cause of death and toxicology results aren't expected for weeks.

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