AP: Anna Nicole Smith Investigated in Murder Plot

In this Feb. 28, 2006, file photo, Anna Nicole Smith, leaves the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington....

In this Feb. 28, 2006, file photo, Anna Nicole Smith, leaves the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington. Smith was investigated by the FBI in 2000 and 2001 in the alleged plot targeting E. Pierce Marshall. At the time, he was fighting Smith to keep her from collecting his late father's vast oil fortune. The younger Marshall has since died. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File)

(AP)

The FBI investigated whether Anna Nicole Smith was part of a plot to kill her tycoon husband's son, whom she was battling for his late dad's fortune, but prosecutors ultimately decided there wasn't enough evidence to charge the Playboy Playmate who died in 2007 from a drug overdose, newly released files show.

Smith's FBI records, obtained exclusively by The Associated Press, say the agency investigated Smith in 2000 and 2001 in a murder-for-hire plot targeting E. Pierce Marshall, who was at the center of a long legal fight to keep the starlet, model and stripper from collecting his father's oil wealth, valued in the hundreds of millions. The younger Marshall has since died.

The documents released under the Freedom of Information Act depict an investigation going on as the fight raged over J. Howard Marshall II's estate. Vast sections of the 100 pages of released materials — a fraction of Smith's full FBI file — are whited out, and no evidence of her involvement in such a plot is detailed.

There is no indication how authorities became aware of the alleged scheme, but agents interviewed Smith on July 3, 2000. When told why she was being questioned, "Smith began crying and denied ever making such plans," a report said.

"Smith adamantly denied ever contemplating such a crime," an agent wrote, and prosecutors eventually agreed the case could not go forward. An April 26, 2001, letter to the FBI from Sally Meloch, an assistant U.S. attorney, said she reviewed the reports but "determined that there is insufficient evidence to establish that there was a murder-for-hire plot by Ms. Smith to kill Pierce Marshall."

Reached at her Los Angeles office on Tuesday, Meloch didn't recall the case, but said, "Any investigations that we didn't proceed with, we couldn't comment on anyway."

An attorney for Smith's estate, Kent Richland, was surprised by the allegations.

"I have not heard anything about that," he said.