LOS ANGELES — Investigators said Monday that it could be weeks before they determine exactly how singer Whitney Houston, 48, died.
Houston was found dead Saturday by a member of her entourage in a bathtub at the upscale Beverly Hilton Hotel, just hours before she was supposed to appear at a pre-Grammy gala. Firefighters and hotel workers attempted CPR but were unsuccessful.
The Associated Press reports that security holds on autopsy results are used in some high-profile Los Angeles cases, with Michael Jackson’s results being withheld for weeks while detectives pieced together the circumstances of his death in June 2009. Toxicology results are frequently necessary before the coroner will release an official cause of death.
Meanwhile, Houston’s daughter was transported by ambulance to a Los Angeles hospital Sunday morning but has since been released. A source close to the family said she was treated for stress and anxiety. Bobbi Kristina Brown, 18, who is Houston’s daughter from her marriage to singer Bobby Brown, had accompanied her mother to several pre-Grammy Awards events last week.
“At this time, we ask for privacy, especially for my daughter, Bobbi Kristina,” Bobby Brown wrote in a statement released about an hour after she was transported from the hotel. “I appreciate all of the condolences that have been directed towards my family and I at this most difficult time.”
Houston battled drug addiction for many years. Her career spiraled downward with her increasing drug abuse that caused record sales to decline and left her voice and her appearance nearly unrecognizable.
But in the 1980s and ’90s, Houston was one of the world’s best-selling artists. Among her hits were “How Will I Know,” “Saving All My Love for You” and “I Will Always Love You.” She won multiple Grammys including album and record of the year.
Her music stardom led to roles in movies, most notably, “The Bodyguard” and “Waiting to Exhale.”
“The biggest devil is me. I’m either my best friend or my worst enemy,” Houston told ABC’s Diane Sawyer in an interview in 2002 with then-husband and singer Bobby Brown by her side. She also admitted in that interview that she and Brown used drugs and they seemed unashamed of it. The interview turned into a rant that further contributed to the demise of her career and reputation.
“First of all, let’s get one thing straight,” she told Sawyer. “Crack is cheap. I make too much money to ever smoke crack. Let’s get that straight. Okay? We don’t do crack. We don’t do that. Crack is wack,” she said.
Houston appeared to be making a comeback in 2009 with her album “I Look to You.” It debuted on the top of the charts and would eventually go platinum. Her success was short-lived, though. Her “Nothing but Love” 2010 concert tour was disappointing with missed tour dates and missed high notes, causing some overseas fans to walk out on her performance. Houston denied a relapse and said she was ill.
