Model Presley Gerber, the son of supermodel Cindy Crawford and Casamigos cofounder Rande Gerber, was found dead Sunday, Sept. 20, 2026, at a sober-living home in Santa Monica, Calif., hours after he checked in. He was 27. Police are treating the case as a suspected overdose.
No cause of death had been released as of Oct. 1; the medical examiner was awaiting test results.
Allie Jenkins, a representative for Crawford and Rande Gerber, confirmed the death. “The family is asking for privacy during this very difficult and painful time,” Jenkins said.
What the Police Found
Officers responded to the home at roughly 9:35 a.m. after someone reported what appeared to be an overdose, Santa Monica police said, and they found a man who had died. The facility is Resolutions Living of Santa Monica.
A law enforcement source told NBC News he checked in at 10 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 19, though TMZ reported Sept. 28 that he arrived after 6 p.m. and that the home admitted him even though its sober team said he was high. A 911 dispatch described him as having suffered cardiac arrest, TMZ reported.
Authorities found him in the bedroom where he had lain down to sleep. His body had already gone cold, an indication that he had likely been dead for some time.
The Santa Monica police department said investigators have seen no indication of foul play and that the inquiry is continuing. Detectives were working to trace the source of the drugs, and the investigation remained open as of Sept. 24.
The Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner said additional testing is necessary before a cause and manner of death can be determined. The medical examiner had, as of Sept. 24, deferred a ruling on cause and manner of death pending toxicology results.
Scrutiny of the Sober Home
The residence is a sober home, not a licensed rehab clinic, and it is not required to be licensed like one. The facility drew fresh scrutiny in a Los Angeles Times report published Sept. 26 and updated Sept. 27, headlined “Inside the ultra-luxury sober living home where Presley Gerber died of suspected overdose.”
Clinical psychologist Dr. Reza Nabavi reportedly owns the facility where Gerber was found, and the Daily Beast reported that he was arrested twice in 2002. That year, Oakland police found Nabavi asleep in a car in an area with “frequent narcotic and prostitution activity” alongside a 15-year-old girl who was under the influence of methamphetamine. He was arrested again in May 2002 on suspicion of trying to sell methamphetamine to an informant.
No contest pleas in both cases brought Nabavi 36 months’ probation each time. He was 25 at the time. His license is currently active.
Funeral Plans and a Grieving Family
His death certificate shows that Gerber was cremated days after his death, and a report published Sept. 27 said his parents will keep his ashes in their home. By Sept. 28, the family was leaning toward a private memorial at its Malibu home, TMZ reported.
Photos cited in a report published Sept. 27 show that George and Amal Clooney called on the grieving family on Sept. 22. The couple are longtime friends of Crawford and Rande Gerber. George Clooney flew to Los Angeles from his home in Lake Como, Italy, taking “the first available flight out,” to console Crawford and Rande Gerber, an insider told Woman’s Day.
“They’re in total shock. They’ve had so many ups and downs with Presley, but they truly thought this stint in rehab would be the chance he needed. Everyone was optimistic, which is what makes this even more difficult,” the insider told Woman’s Day.
The insider said Crawford is a focus of concern. “He was her firstborn – the most beautiful boy she’d ever seen. She doesn’t know how she’ll get through it,” the insider said. The insider also said Rande Gerber “needs to have a close eye kept on him too. He’s putting on a soldier’s front for the girls, but he and Presley were incredibly close.”
Tributes From Friends
Actress Nicola Peltz, 31, a friend, said she was truly devastated and that she felt lucky to have had him in her life. Two things would stay with her always, she said: his kindness, and how he turned up for the people close to him. She also offered condolences to his family. “Presley was pure light in this world, he had the kindest heart,” Peltz said.
Brooklyn Peltz Beckham, another friend, said he was heartbroken. “Presley you were the kindest and we are going to miss you so much x we love you,” Peltz Beckham said.
On social media, Paris Hilton wrote that she was completely heartbroken and that the news still did not feel real to her. Gerber, she recalled, had been a beautiful soul and a gentle, caring young man.
Jason Kennedy said the news left him feeling sick to his stomach. Gerber deserved credit, Kennedy said, for talking openly about his struggles because he believed it would help other people — and, in Kennedy’s telling, it did. He said a close bond had grown between them and that watching Gerber’s parents love him had been beautiful to see.
A Career That Began Early
Gerber was born in the Los Angeles area on July 2, 1999. Crawford and Rande Gerber married in 1998, and Presley was their eldest child. His younger sister is Kaia Gerber, a model and actress.
IMG Models signed him at 15. Moschino gave him his first runway show, in Los Angeles, when he was 16, and Dolce & Gabbana followed; international campaigns came from Calvin Klein and Celine. Pepsi put mother and son together in a 2018 advertisement that re-created his mother’s 1992 Super Bowl commercial, when he was 18. Photographers caught the family together in London that same year — Crawford, Rande Gerber, Presley and Kaia Gerber.
Police arrested him in Beverly Hills in Dec. 2018 and charged him with driving under the influence (DUI). A no contest plea brought three years’ probation, plus a court-ordered DUI program and two days of community service.
Speaking Openly About Addiction
Gerber got a face tattoo reading “MISUNDERSTOOD” in 2020, and in an Instagram video he said the word captured how he had felt his entire life. By summer 2021 he had apparently had the ink removed. He launched an Instagram video series, “Mental Health Mondays,” saying he wanted to prompt honest conversations about things most people keep hidden. Mental health was a big part of his life and a round-the-clock job, he said on the Studio 22 podcast in Feb. 2023, adding that pulling even one person out of the place he had once occupied would be enough for him.
In 2024, he revealed a severe, multi-year opiate addiction, and a report published Sept. 27 recounted the near-fatal fentanyl overdose that had left him in a coma for several days. Rehab for ibogaine treatment followed. In a since-deleted Dec. 2025 video, he said buprenorphine, Xanax and Valium were managing his symptoms and treating his panic attacks, and he called conflicting advice from doctors scary. In Nov. 2025, he told followers he needed to pull back for a time to look after his own mental health. In a March 26, 2026, Instagram post, he wrote that he had undergone an ibogaine “flood dose,” describing the experience as frightening but saying he had finally confronted what he had been running from.
Kaia Gerber discussed the family’s experience in Vogue’s September 2026 cover story, published online Aug. 11, addressing her brother’s decade-long struggle with drug addiction. She told the magazine their parents had kept almost everything private for most of their lives while her brother chose to be openly human in front of everyone, and she said trying to hide something only leaves the person at the center feeling like a source of shame. “When something like that happens in a family, it kind of levels everyone,” she told Vogue in August, and she called him “a teacher” for being human in front of the world.
Crawford marked her son’s 27th birthday on July 2 with throwback photos and a message of pride and love. He was dead less than three months later.
