Amanda Peterson -- star of the flick "Can't Buy Me Love" -- has died at her home in Greeley, Colorado ... TMZ has learned.

We spoke with Peterson's father who tells us ... the family hadn't heard from 43-year-old Amanda since July 3rd and became concerned. Her body was finally discovered in her home on July 5.

As for cause of death, Peterson's father tells us they don't know the official cause of death -- but notes, "She had some illness and a sleep apnea problem that may have contributed."

We're also told Peterson had been dealing with several medical issues over the past 2 years -- including pneumonia, sinusitis and sleep apnea. Peterson's father also says she had been living in a home with mold issues ... but moved out about a year ago.

Peterson became a superstar playing Cindy Mancini opposite Patrick Dempsey in the 1987 romantic comedy ... but she left the entertainment industry altogether in 1994 and had been living in Colorado for years.

We're told she went back to school several years ago -- but dropped out around 2010. Recently, we're told she had been trying to make it as a writer.

Read more: http://www.tmz.com/2015/07/06/amanda...#ixzz3f9YnStEF


Amanda Peterson's Family Says She Was Raped at 15

Actress Amanda Peterson, who died in July of an accidental morphine overdose, was raped at age 15, her family said Monday.

Peterson's mother, Sylvia, said on an episode of "The Doctors" that the incident "affected her forever."

"At the height of Mandy's career, she suffered a very serious trauma," Sylvia Peterson told the program. "She had been raped."

Her mom added, "She just felt so ashamed. She didn't want people to know."

"After that she became more defensive, less trusting," the actress' father, James Peterson, said on the program. "Some of the sparkle was gone."

The "Can't Buy Me Love" star was found dead at age 43 in her Greeley, Colorado, apartment on July 5, after a troubled adulthood which included drug problems and several arrests.

Her family, including her brother and sister, told "The Doctors" that after the rape she began using heroin and, later, meth, though she was clean, they said, for the last two years of her life.

"I think for her to carry the secret, this burden of the assault, must have just been overwhelming," sister Anne-Marie said.