truancy sundries: Whitney Houston Death Probe Finds No Foul Play

Saturday, April 14, 2012

Whitney Houston Death Probe Finds No Foul Play

Police close their investigation into the singer's death after concluding it was accidental.
By Gil Kaufman

Whitney Houston
Photo: 20th Century Fox/Getty Images

Police investigators have concluded their probe into the death of Whitney Houston and concluded that she died  of accidental drowning.

According to CNN, the probe by the Beverly Hills Police Department was officially closed after investigators found "no evidence of foul play." In a statement from the department, police said, "Based on the findings of our investigation and our review of the coroner's report, we have determined that this is not a criminal matter."

The Los Angeles County coroner released its autopsy report last week in which it determined that Houston's February 11 death was an accidental drowning  with the "effects of atherosclerotic heart disease and cocaine use" as contributing factors. The conclusion of the police investigation was followed by the release of the 911 emergency call about the incident, in which a hotel security officer told the 911 operator that the woman who called for help from Houston's room was "irate and pretty much out of it." The security officer did not identify Houston in the call.

"I need paramedics, apparently I've got a 46-year-old female, found in the bathroom," he told the 911 operator. "That's all I've got right now, but they're requesting paramedics." The autopsy report said that Houston's assistant found the singer, who was actually 48 years old, face down in a bathtub of "extremely hot water."

"I'm not sure if she fell, or if she was in the bathroom with the water," the security officer said in the call, adding, "apparently she wasn't breathing." When asked if the guard could get the 911 operator into the room to give CPR instructions, the security officer said, "No, because she [the woman who called from Houston's room] kept hanging up on us."

The coroner's report did not detail exactly what happened to cause Houston's death, but addiction medicine specialist Dr. Drew Pinsky told CNN he had a theory. Pinsky examined the autopsy report and suggested that Houston might have suffered a seizure brought on by the use of cocaine, possibly combined with a withdrawal from alcohol and a prescription sedative. Police did find an empty bottle of the anti-anxiety drug Xanax in Houston's room, as well as empty beer bottles, but alcohol was not detected in her body and the level of the sedative in her blood was low.

"To me, a sudden drop-off in the Xanax level, a drop-off in your alcohol consumption, add cocaine, that's a recipe for a seizure," Pinsky said. "Somebody who's now upside down in a bathtub could easily seize and drown."

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