Whitney Houston’s sister-in-law and manager issued a statement saying they are thankful to finally know how the singer died.
“We are saddened to learn of the toxicology results, although we are glad to now have closure,” said Patricia Houston, the singer’s sister-in-law and manager, in a statement to the Associated Press.
In a recent interview with Oprah Winfrey, Patricia Houston described the frantic efforts to revive Whitney Houston at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Feb. 11 after she was discovered unresponsive, submerged in the bathtub of her suite.
Patricia Houston told Winfrey she raced to Houston’s room after hearing an assistant screaming and crying. She found her brother Ray over Houston, frantically trying to revive her. Houston was out of the bathtub and on the floor, she said, but Patricia Houston said she was unsure how she got there.
“The paramedics were coming in at that point. I said, ‘Ray, let it go.’ He was so out of breath. I felt so badly for him,” Patricia Houston said, according to a transcript of the interview.
She was able to see Houston before paramedics arrived moments later.
“She had a peaceful look on her face,” Patricia Houston said.
The coroner’s report released Thursday determined that Whitney Houston died accidentally as the result of drowning. The coroner said heart disease and cocaine use were also factors. Toxicology tests showed a cocktail of drugs in the pop star’s system. Traces of marijuana, Xanax, Flexeril and Benadryl were also found, but officials concluded that those drugs did not contribute to her death.
No cocaine was retrieved from the Beverly Hills hotel room where Whitney Houston died even though toxicology tests found the drug in her system, coroner’s officials said.
Ed Winter, deputy chief of the Los Angeles County coroner’s office, said several bottles of pills were recovered -– but no cocaine. Winter said the amounts of cocaine and other drugs in her system will not be known for a few more weeks.
Experts have told The Times that it will probably take time for investigators to sort out Houston’s medical history and prescription drug inventory.
The Los Angeles County coroner’s office has said that investigators have asked “a number” of doctors to provide them with Houston’s medical information.
Experts said it could be challenging to build a complete list of a subject’s prescription drugs, particularly a celebrity’s. Some celebrities use the names of their assistants — or fake names — on prescriptions, they said.
L.A. County Sheriff’s Sgt. Steve Opferman, who oversees a prescription drug task force but is not involved in the Houston case, said, “Celebrities often get their prescription drugs from doctors who are more than willing to give them what they want and sometimes using members of their entourage.”
Authorities collected several bottles of drugs from Houston’s suite at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. At the time of her death, officials said the amounts of drugs did not seem unusually large.
Houston was in Los Angeles to take part in pre-Grammy events and had planned to attend a party for her longtime mentor Clive Davis at the hotel.
Davis, who discovered Houston and shepherded her recording career, declined through a spokeswoman to comment on the coroner’s report.
Originally published on latimes.com
