Whitney Houston autopsy report: Signs of cocaine use

Whitney Houston had drug paraphernalia in her hotel room, according to the autopsy report released Wednesday. Cocaine was listed as a contributing factor in her death.

|
(AP Photo/Matt Sayles, file)
Musician Whitney Houston in 2006 in Beverly Hills, Calif. An autopsy report shows that cocaine was found in Houston's system and that investigators recovered white powdery substances from her hotel room. Houston died Feb. 11, 2012 in California.

The hotel room where Whitney Houston died bore the hallmarks of a traveler — suitcases and room-service food and drinks. But it also contained something tragically familiar for the singer: signs of cocaine and its paraphernalia.

The drug was found throughout Houston's body, according to an autopsy report released Wednesday that gave the most detailed account yet of how the Grammy-winning singer died just hours before she was to appear at a pre-Grammy Awards party. By the time an assistant found her face down in a bathtub on the afternoon of Feb. 11, Houston had likely been dead for at least an hour.

Nearby, on the bathroom counter, investigators found a small spoon described by investigators as having a "crystal like substance" in it and in a drawer they discovered a white powdery substance. The dozen prescription drug bottles found in Houston's suite of the Beverly Hilton Hotel led investigators to initially suspect she died of an overdose, but after further examination and toxicology results they concluded she drowned accidentally. Heart disease and cocaine use were listed as contributing factors.

IN PICTURES: Remembering Whitney Houston

Toxicology results also showed Houston had marijuana, Xanax, the muscle relaxant Flexeril, and the allergy medication Benadryl in her system, but none are considered factors in her death.

The grim accounting of the room where Houston died and what investigators found provide a sad footnote to the singer's life, showing the impact drugs took on her.

Houston, 48, had been preparing for the annual party of her mentor, Clive Davis, a record producer who helped launch her career two decades earlier. She had finished work on her return to acting by starring in a remake of the film "Sparkle," which would also feature her rendition of the gospel classic "His Eye Is on the Sparrow."

The singer had said she had a sore throat and her assistant suggested she take a bath to get ready for the party. The assistant left to pick up some items at a department store and by the time she returned, Houston was submerged in the tub, which was overflowing and had soaked the carpet in another room.

Efforts were made to revive Houston, including using a defibrillator, according to the coroner's report.

Coroner's officials declined to discuss details in the report, including whether toxicology results showing the level of cocaine in Houston's body could be used to determine how recently she took the drug. The office has said there were signs of recent and chronic use by the singer.

Beverly Hills police have been awaiting the report before closing the report, although the agency has said there are no signs of foul play in Houston's death.

The singer had battled addiction for years, but friends and family have said she appeared committed to making a comeback in the months before her death.

"The biggest devil is me. I'm either my best friend or my worst enemy," Houston told ABC's Diane Sawyer in an infamous 2002 television interview with then-husband Bobby Brown by her side.

Brown has faced his own troubles since his ex-wife's death. He was arrested and charged last month with driving under the influence of alcohol in Los Angeles and faces a court date later this month.

The details of Houston's death have not yet impacted plans to release "Sparkle" later this year. A trailer released Monday featured Houston prominently in her role as the matriarch of a family of girls who form a singing group and struggle with fame and addiction.

IN PICTURES: Remembering Whitney Houston

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Whitney Houston autopsy report: Signs of cocaine use
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/Latest-News-Wires/2012/0405/Whitney-Houston-autopsy-report-Signs-of-cocaine-use
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe