Police Reveal Whitney Houston Body Was Found Underwater
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Kevin Mazur/AMA2009/WireImage(LOS ANGELES) — Whitney Houston’s brother-in-law vehemently denied Monday that the singer had any intention of committing suicide.
“Oh, no, this is accidental,” Billy Watson told ABC News. “She wouldn’t have left her daughter like that. She wouldn’t have done that to her daughter.”
Watson, whose sister is married to Houston’s brother, Gary, also said the family is flying back to New Jersey from California on Monday and Tuesday. Houston’s body was moved from the Los Angeles County Coroner on Monday; ABC News’ New York affiliate WABC reported that it is expected to arrive at the same Newark funeral home that handled arrangements for Houston’s father in 2003.
Houston was “underwater and apparently unconscious” when authorities found her in the bathtub of a room in the Beverly Hilton hotel, Beverly Hills police said. She was first discovered by a member of her personal staff at about 3:30 p.m. Saturday.
She was pulled from the tub by members of her staff and hotel security was promptly notified. Fire department officials who arrived found her unconscious and unresponsive; she was pronounced dead at the hotel at 3:55 p.m.
Public information officer Lieutenant Mark Rosen said at a news conference Monday that police consider Houston’s case a “death investigation, not a criminal investigation,” but added that they have not “ruled out” the prospect that it could turn into a homicide investigation. He declined to comment on any reports about the cause of death.
L.A. assistant chief coroner Ed Winter also maintained at a news conference that officials do not know the 48-year-old singer’s cause of death. But he confirmed to ABC News’ L.A. affiliate KABC that officials found prescription bottles in Houston’s hotel room. He said they weren’t “alarming” or “out of the ordinary.”
They were all “pretty normal” prescriptions, Winter said, adding, “I have more prescriptions than what was found in her [Houston’s] room.”
A source told KABC that one of the prescriptions was amoxicillin, an antibiotic commonly used to treat bacterial infections. Houston’s official cause of death will not be determined for six to eight weeks, pending toxicology results.
TMZ reported earlier Monday that family sources briefed by coroner officials were told Houston likely died from a combination of the drug Xanax and other prescription medication mixed with alcohol.
Investigators looking into the death of Houston have said that they will be examining the pop icon’s behavior in the hours and days before she was found dead. They have already questioned the singer’s family, friends, and staff.
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