Presley Gerber checked into a sober-living home in Santa Monica, Calif., and was found dead there hours later, on Sunday, September 20, 2026. He was 27. Gerber, a model, was the son of supermodel Cindy Crawford and Casamigos cofounder Rande Gerber. Police are treating the case as a suspected overdose.
A check-in time of 10 p.m. on Saturday, September 19, put Gerber inside Resolutions Living of Santa Monica that night, according to a law enforcement source. He had suffered cardiac arrest. Authorities located him in the bedroom where he had lain down to sleep; his body was already cold, suggesting he had likely been dead for some time.
A report of what appeared to be an overdose brought officers to the home at roughly 9:35 a.m., Santa Monica police said, and they found a man who had died. Investigators have seen no indication of foul play, the department said, adding that its inquiry was continuing. Additional testing is necessary before a cause and manner of death can be determined, the Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner said. 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.
The residence is a sober home rather than a licensed rehab clinic, and it is not required to be licensed like one. The medical examiner had, as of September 24, deferred a ruling on the cause and manner of death pending toxicology results; detectives, meanwhile, were working to trace the source of the drugs.
The facility drew fresh scrutiny in a report published September 26 and updated September 27 under the headline “Inside the ultra-luxury sober living home where Presley Gerber died of suspected overdose.”
The facility where Gerber was found dead is reportedly owned by clinical psychologist Dr. Reza Nabavi, who was arrested twice in 2002, according to a published report. Officers found him 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, and he was arrested again that month for possessing narcotics and drug paraphernalia. He pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor for each and received 36 months’ probation in each case. He is currently licensed.
Gerber was cremated days after his death, according to his death certificate, and his parents will keep his ashes in their home, according to a report published September 27.
The family is planning a small funeral, reportedly to be held the week of September 27 at either Forest Lawn or Malibu Presbyterian Church, the same September 27 report said.
Tributes From Friends and Peers
A friend of Gerber’s, the actress Nicola Peltz, 31, said she was truly devastated. “Presley was pure light in this world, he had the kindest heart,” Peltz said. She felt lucky to have had him in her life, she added, and said his kindness, and the way he showed up for those close to him, would stay with her always. She offered her condolences to his family.
Another friend, Brooklyn Peltz Beckham, said he was heartbroken. “Presley you were the kindest and we are going to miss you so much x we love you,” he said.
Paris Hilton, writing on social media, said she was completely heartbroken and could still not believe the news was real; she remembered Gerber as a beautiful soul and a gentle, caring young man. The news left Jason Kennedy feeling sick to his stomach, he said, and he gave Gerber credit for speaking openly about his struggles in the belief that doing so would help other people — which, Kennedy said, it did. A close bond had grown between them, he added, and watching Gerber’s parents love him had been beautiful to see.
George and Amal Clooney, longtime friends of Crawford and Rande Gerber, visited the grieving family on September 22, according to photos cited in a report published September 27.
A Modeling Career That Started at 15
Gerber was born in the Los Angeles area on July 2, 1999. Crawford and Rande Gerber, who married in 1998, welcomed him as their eldest child. IMG Models put him under contract at 15, and at 16 he walked his first runway show, for Moschino in Los Angeles. Dolce & Gabbana followed, and Calvin Klein and Celine hired him for international campaigns. A 2018 advertisement re-creating his mother’s 1992 Super Bowl commercial for Pepsi cast the pair together when he was 18. Photographers caught the family together in London that same year — Crawford, Rande Gerber, Presley and his younger sister, the model and actress Kaia Gerber.
The attention that came with the surname was not always kind. He was arrested in Beverly Hills in December 2018 and charged with driving under the influence (DUI). His no contest plea brought three years’ probation, and the court also ordered him to complete a DUI program and two days of community service. A face tattoo reading “MISUNDERSTOOD” came in 2020, and in an Instagram video he told viewers the word captured how he had felt his entire life. By the summer of 2021 he had apparently had the ink removed.
Talking Openly About Addiction and Anxiety
Gerber did not retreat from what he was going through; he pushed it outward. He launched an Instagram video series, “Mental Health Mondays,” saying he wanted to prompt honest conversations about the things most people keep hidden. Speaking on the Studio 22 podcast in February 2023, he called mental health a big part of his life and a round-the-clock job. Pulling even one person out of the place he had once occupied, he said, would be enough for him.
In 2024, Gerber revealed he had battled a severe, multi-year opiate addiction and suffered a near-fatal fentanyl overdose that left him in a coma for several days, according to a report published September 27. He later entered rehab for ibogaine treatment.
The medical side of it drew the same candor from him. Gerber said in a since-deleted December 2025 video that buprenorphine, Xanax and Valium were managing his symptoms and treating his panic attacks, and he called the conflicting advice he was getting from doctors scary. His followers had heard from him a month earlier, in November 2025, when he said he needed to pull back for a time to look after his own mental health. He wrote in a March 26, 2026, Instagram post 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 what the family had been through in an August 2026 Vogue cover story that addressed her brother’s decade-long struggle with drug addiction. Their parents had kept almost everything private for most of their lives, she told the magazine, while her brother had taken the opposite path, choosing to be openly human in front of everyone. Trying to hide something, she added, only leaves the person at the center of it feeling like a source of shame.
Crawford had marked her son’s 27th birthday on July 2 with throwback photos of him and a message of pride and love. He was dead less than three months later. The investigation remained open as of September 24.
