On July 13, 2012, Sage was discovered dead in his Los Angeles-area apartment by his housekeeper. Speculations about the possible cause of death began spreading almost immediately.

At first, there was some confusion around Sage’s exact time of death, with some media outlets reporting that he may have been dead for a few days before he was found. This rumor was eventually refuted, with evidence surfacing of a final Facebook post shared just 17 hours before his body was discovered.

Further rumors emerged, including one that claimed that Sage had a room stacked with liquor bottles. This in turn led to the theory that Sage’s death was related to drug or alcohol abuse.

Sage’s longtime friend and attorney George Braunstein helped put these theories to rest. According to Braunstein, while Sage did smoke and consumed candy and soda, he didn’t drink alcohol. Indeed the ‘suspect’ bottles in his room were simply Dr. Brown’s Cream Soda.

“Sage was a really young, very sensitive, and very talented kid. There has been no indication that there was anything wrong in his life,” Braunstein said, adding that Sage never had any serious health problems or a history of drug or alcohol abuse.

Suicide, yet another rumor that was circulating around Sage’s mysterious death, was also finally ruled out as a possibility. No suicide note was ever found, not to mention that the young man was preparing to marry his longtime girlfriend.