With Whitney Houston autopsy done, body will be flown to Atlanta
Toxicology results may take six to eight weeks
Whitney Houston’s family is free to collect her body from the Los Angeles County coroner’s office and make funeral arrangements, a coroner’s lieutenant said Monday morning.
Houston’s mother has arranged to have the body flown back to Atlanta as early as Tuesday, TMZ reported. While police have placed a security hold on autopsy results, no such hold has been placed on the body, Winter said.
The coroner has no further need for the body, said Lt. Joe Bale, adding that the autopsy has been completed. “There’s no reason it couldn’t be released to the family today,” Bale said of the body.
The same is not true for results of the autopsy, which were placed under a security hold on the orders of the Beverly Hills Police Department.
The body of the 48-year-old Houston was found in the bathtub of her room at the Beverly Hilton hotel Saturday, hours before she was to attend a pre-Grammy Awards party.
The celebrity news website TMZ.com Monday quoted family sources as saying that coroner’s officials told them Houston did not drown, but appears to have died from the effects of a combination of alcohol and prescription drugs, including the anti-anxiety drug Xanax.
Coroner’s Assistant Chief Ed Winter told reporters at an early-morning news conference Monday that he spoke to family members and never communicated the information reported by TMZ.
But he stopped short of denying it, suggesting it may have come from someone affiliated with Beverly Hills police.
“”You can look at a body and not know what the cause of death is,” Winter said. “You might have a suspicion, but the person could have suffered a heart attack, or an embolism or something; and no matter what medications they’re taking, until we run (toxicological tests) and see the level, and what’s in the system, we’re not going to speculate.”
Houston’s body was discovered in the bathtub by her aunt, Mary Jones, who began administering CPR, TMZ reported. Jones, who about 30 minuts earlier had laid out on the bed the dress Houston was going to wear at Saturday night’s party, went into the bathroom because Houston was not coming out, according to TMZ.
The body had been removed from the bathtub before Beverly Hills firefighters arrived, Winter said.
Winter said blood and urine samples taken from Houston’s body are being subjected to toxicology testing. Toxicology results usually take six to eight weeks to obtain—two to three if they are rushed, Bale said.
In other developments, Houston’s ex-husband, Bobby Brown, arrived at LAX Sunday night to attend to 18-year-old daughter, Bobbi Kristina Brown, who visited the emergency room at Cedars Sinai Medical Center this weekend—twice, according to local news reports, suffering from stress and anxiety.
Producer/writer/director and star Tyler Perry has signed Bobbi Kristina Brown, the daughter of the late Whitney Houston and singer Bobby Brown, to a recurring role on the Perry Turner Broadcasting System (TBS) comedy, “For Better or Worse.” This family sitcom is based on the characters introduced by Perry’s movies “Why Did I Get Married?” and “Why Did I Get Married Too?”
A spoon with a “white crystal-like substance” and remnants of a “white powdery substance” were found in the Beverly Hills hotel room where singer Whitney Houston died, according to a coroner’s report issued Wednesday.
Houston, 48, drowned in a bathtub at the Beverly Hilton on Feb. 11. Coroner’s officials said previously that cocaine use and heart disease contributed to her death, with evidence that the singer used cocaine shortly before she slipped under the water in the tub.
Whitney Houston died this afternoon ... a rep for the singer told the Associated Press.
Houston won two Emmy Awards, six Grammy Awards, 30 Billboard Music Awards, 22 American Music Awards during her record-breaking career. Her album "Whitney" was the first female album to ever debut at #1 on the Billboard Charts. She has sold 200 albums world wide.
Houston holds an Honorary Doctorate in Humanities from Grambling State University in Louisiana.
Houston had one child, Bobbi Kristina, with husband Bobby Brown. Houston and Brown were married from 1992-2007.
Dick Clark, the seemingly ageless television fixture who hosted “American Bandstand” and helped the nation celebrate New Year’s Eve for nearly 40 years, died today, April 18, in Santa Monica of a massive heart attack at age 82.
Affectionately known as “America’s oldest teenager” for his perennially youthful looks and enthusiastic attitude, Clark went to St. John’s Health Center last night for an “outpatient procedure,” but suffered a “massive heart attack,” publicist Paul Shefrin said.
Singer Bobby Brown, the ex-husband of the late Whitney Houston, was arrested in Tarzana Monday on suspicion of driving under the influence.
Brown, 43, was arrested about 12:20 p.m. at Victory Boulevard and Wilbur Avenue, according to California Highway Patrol Officer Mike Harris.
Brown was booked on suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs, and was being held at the Van Nuys jail, Harris said. Brown was pulled over for allegedly talking on a cell phone.
