Shyla Stylez Cause of Death: The Reason It Was Never Confirmed

Shyla Stylez was a Canadian adult film star who was born as Amanda Hardy, died on November 9, 2017, when she was 35 years old. 

She was discovered to be unresponsive in bed at her mother's house in Armstrong, British Columbia. Although she had a prominent career in the adult industry, no official cause of death was made publicly available.

The lack of a definite cause has led to much speculation. In October 2018, The Daily Beast stated that Stylez had died in her sleep as a result of a 'suspected overdose'. Important however is the fact that the publication did not state that an overdose had been confirmed by the coroner. 

In previous reports for The Daily Beast, it had simply been said that Stylez had died in her sleep. The difference is that a suspected overdose is not equivalent to a confirmed cause of death, and no publicly reported toxicology report or coroner's finding has confirmed an overdose.

There was also a period of disturbing deaths among young women in the adult industry which coincided with Stylez's death. From November 2017 to January 2018, five performers whose deaths attracted a great deal of attention, Stylez, August Ames, Yurizan Beltran, Olivia Nova and Olivia Lua, died, but none of these deaths had a common cause. 

Ames died by suicide; the causes of the others were linked to overdoses or medical issues, while the cause of Stylez's death remained publicly unresolved. Modern reporting indicated that the industry was dealing with feelings of grief, concerns about mental health, addiction, and the pressures faced by performers.

The fact that the deaths were dealt with also revealed a continuing stigma associated with pornography. 

The Daily Beast claimed that when addiction was found among sex workers it usually didn't receive the same public sympathy shown towards other entertainers, but instead people assumed that drug use was just something that came with being a porn star; the performers interviewed at that time said that they felt judged, isolated or treated as second-class citizens because of their work.

The stigma might offer an explanation for the fact that Stylez's cause of death received only limited and continuous attention from the mainstream media, but it would be incorrect to claim that the stigma alone stopped the cause from being made public. 

Since Stylez died in British Columbia, where there are strong privacy rules regarding coroners' information and reports are not automatically published in full, the Chief Coroner has the discretion to decide whether to disclose the information and the law specifically balances the public interest against personal privacy.

Nine years later, the most reasonable conclusion is still a limited one. Stylez died suddenly at the age of 35, and The Daily Beast later described her death as having been a suspected overdose. Since there has not been an official finding released to the public to establish the cause, it should still remain nothing more than a suspicion.

Perhaps the most revealing aspect was what came after her death, the rumours, the limited amount of public information and the assumptions associated with her job. 

Despite her death, she remains one of the most popular stars in the industry with 700 credits to her name.

Since the string of deaths that rocked the industry, many more stars of adult entertainment have died recently from drug overdoses, including Sophia Leone, Jesse Jane and Kylie Page.

This leads to the conversation about whether the industry is rampant with drug use or drug users are attracted to the fast money and limelight.

Regardless, they remain stars with millions of fans who are shunned by the mainstream media.