Howard K Stern and his dead eyes were on Scientologist Greta Van Sustern’s show on Fox News yesterday. He talked about the night Anna Nicole’s son Daniel died in her hospital room four days after she had baby Danielynn, in September, 2006.

Stern recounted the story in his typical flat affect, showing absolutely no emotion and looking straight ahead almost the entire time.

He said that after Daniel died Anna was inconsolable and refused to believe he was dead. Howard said he took the photo of Anna clutching dead Daniel in the hospital bed for her, and that it was stolen and leaked to the media. He said that he couldn’t take Daniel home with them, but he could take that last photo for Anna. Sustern acknowledged receiving the photo, but said she chose not to run it. I cannot remember seeing that photo.

Daniel’s death was officially ruled an accident earlier this month after an inquest in the Bahamas. He was said to have died of the drug combination of methadone, Zoloft and Lexapro. Coupled with Anna Nicole’s death from a drug overdose on Stern’s watch, it makes him look guilty as hell, but he’s managed to avoid being implicated in either death and it could perhaps be a coincidence.

Lawyer Howard K Stern continues to stay in the mansion in the Bahamas that Anna scammed from an ex boyfriend, developer Ben Thompson. The National Enquirer reported on April 7 that “Stern is living in the place pending the outcome of the ownership battle.” Eviction proceedings were started by Thompson over a year ago.

The inquest into the death of Anna Nicole Smith’s son Daniel is going on in the Bahamas. It’s hard to tell who is the bigger surviving famewhore: Larry Birkhead or Howard K. Stern. Both hangers-on have been called to testify in the investigation and give two very different accounts of Daniel. Larry Birkhead claims that Daniel often dipped into his mother’s formidable stash of prescription drugs, and that Anna herself gave Daniel the drug ecstasy on occasion. Stern, however, says that Daniel was “not that kind of kid.” When Stern was grilled about his motives for taking photographs of Daniel’s dead body, he explained that he wasn’t looking to make money off the photos, but instead took them for Anna’s sake, because she was not able to accept that her son was really gone.

Larry Birkhead said he knew Daniel Smith was sneaking his mom’s methadone and that Anna Nicole Smith gave him Ecstasy to take at home.

Meanwhile, Howard K. Stern was saying, “Huh?”…

“I didn’t believe Daniel died of a drug overdose at all,” Stern said. “Even after the toxicology report came back, I thought that was some kind of setup or something. He wasn’t that kind of kid.”

Smith was found to have died of a toxic combination of methadone, antidepressants and sleeping pills. His passing was originally deemed “suspicious” by the coroner who performed his autopsy. The inquest, which finally got under way in November after a year of postponements, was held to formally determine what killed Daniel and whether any criminal charges should be filed.

The magistrate will likely hand the case over to the seven-member jury on Thursday…

“Daniel said to me, ‘I don’t know why I’m so tired,’ ” Stern testified. “I didn’t think anything of it. I wish I had.”

Stern copped to taking a picture of Daniel’s body after he died, but adamantly denied his intention was to profit from the morbid shot, as the son-in-law of one of Smith’s exes testified earlier.

Smith, who was beside herself with grief and was having trouble accepting Daniel was really dead, requested he take the picture, Stern said. “I did that for her, and I would do it again.”

[From E!Online]

I think this inquest is a giant waste of time. Nobody in this case is going to tell the truth, and the one person who really wanted to know what happened to Daniel– his mother– is dead. As for all the new details about Anna and her son’s drug use, it’s sad, but at this point, it’s nobody’s business. They’re both dead; and nothing is going to be gained by further dragging them through the mud. It just seems like more of an excuse for Larry Birkhead and Howard Stern to be on camera.

Note by Celebitchy: I think there was some funny business in Daniel’s death and would like to see Howard K Stern answer some tough questions about it. It seems suspicious to me that Birkhead is saying Daniel pilfered Anna’s drugs while Stern is saying the opposite, like they planned it together to make it seem believable. The coroner found that Daniel injested so much methadone that he must have be trying to kill himself. Why would he do that when his baby sister was just born? It doesn’t make sense.

Howard K Stern and Larry Birkhead are shown below on April 10, 2007 after a paternity hearing that announced that Birkhead was Dannielynn’s father.

The inquest into the death of Anna Nicole Smith’s son Daniel has resumed. Though he died sixteen months ago, the inquest has been plagued by delays. The essential point is to determine how Daniel Smith died and if anyone was responsible for his death. His autopsy blamed a fatal combination of prescription drugs. However the inquest’s purpose is to figure out if it was accidental, suicidal, or if someone killed Daniel. A lot of suspicion has fallen on creepy Howard K. Stern, Anna’s “partner” - though it seems that they were likely never romantically involved. After Anna died last spring, the inquest was put on hold again. However they’ve been working at a steady pace the last few days, and have taken testimony from several of Anna’s friends.

Several of Anna’s associates have described Daniel as a boy who was painfully shy and somewhat embarrassed by his mother.

Ford Shelley, the son-in-law of G. Ben Thompson, a former boyfriend of the reality star and the developer who owned the Nassau home Smith and Howard K. Stern resided in the months leading up to her death, told the Coroner’s Court that the 20-year-old boy was a “brilliant” child who had for years been “living in a shell” as a result of his mother’s overshadowing fame and larger-than-life public persona.

“He wanted to break free,” Shelley said. “He loved his mother but didn’t want to be known as her son.”

[From E!]

Shelly denied that Daniel could have had a drug problem, noting that he “couldn’t even hold his liquor” and was “afraid of his own shadow.” Shelly noted that after Daniel died, he saw Howard K Stern find two white pills in the pockets of a pair of Daniel’s pants - which Stern quickly flushed down the toilet. Shelly said that he knew Daniel had recently broken up with his girlfriend and had a history of serious depression, but that he did not think he was suicidal. However the director of the medical examiner’s office in Miami-Dade County (where Daniel’s toxicology tests were performed) said it was likely an “intentional ingestion” due to the sheer quantity of drugs.

While eight different drugs, a combination of antidepressants and stimulants, were found in Daniel’s body at the time of his death, “clearly the methadone was the key in understanding this death. But for the methadone, he would not have died.”

[Dr. William Lee] Hern further claimed that, while he could not know for certain whether he did so deliberately or unintentionally, the large amount of drugs taken by Daniel in such a short amount of time—a onetime dosage of four pills rather than one, possibly diluted in a drink—lent itself to “a high degree of probability” that the overdose of drugs was “an intentional ingestion.”

“Based on the amount in the stomach, it was not an attempt to get high,” he said. “It was enough to kill him, with some left over unabsorbed. If what was in his blood hadn’t killed him, the remainder would have continued its toxic effect.”

[From E!]

I never though Daniel’s death was accidental, it was just a matter of speculating whether he killed himself or Howard K Stern did it. Whenever I considered the possibility of suicide, I couldn’t help but think about the timing. When you’re 20 years old, an only child, and admittedly very close to your needy mother, it must be incredibly bizarre for her to suddenly have a brand new baby girl and be shaking up with an evil guy. I thought Daniel might have been suicidal depressed because he perhaps thought he didn’t matter to his mother as much as he used to. I would think a lot of things were changing in his life, and that’d have to be a shock to the system. It never occurred to me that he obviously had his own life and own issues, and breaking up with a girlfriend can be really hard - especially when you’re just 20 years old. It can feel like the world is ending.

The issue of the methadone still remains incredibly suspicious, considering it played a role in Anna’s death a few months later. Being a lawyer, you’d think that if Howard K Stern were involved in some way, he’d be smart enough not to use methadone twice. But he’s never struck me as a particularly intelligent fellow, at least to hear him speak in interviews. So at this point we know that Daniel Smith’s death was caused by an “intentional ingestion” of drugs. What remains to be ruled is whether foul play was involved.

Since it’s been a little over a month since we gave you an update on the Anna Nicole case, I thought it was time for a rundown. The inquest into the death of her son Daniel, 20, got under way last week. It had been postponed several times due to the legal wranglings of Howard K. Stern … and a hurricane, so they’re not all his fault. It took over a year for the inquest to actually begin. So far there haven’t been any giant revelations that make a person say a-ha, but there have been a lot of interesting tidbits. For instance, before he died, Daniel seemed fine to all the hospital personnel who came across him. Though several of them did note that they found Daniel asleep with Anna Nicole in her bed, which they found unusual.

On the second day of an inquest into the Sept. 10, 2006, death of Daniel Smith, nursing assistant Francis Woodside said the young man was sleeping in the same bed as his mother, while her attorney and partner Howard K. Stern slept in the other, about 3 hours and 40 minutes before a hospital-wide alarm that he had been found unconscious.

Woodside noted nothing unusual in the room except the sleeping arrangements. “We don’t usually have that happen, patients sleeping in the bed with relatives,” she told a jury that will decide the official cause of death and whether authorities should pursue any criminal charges.

[From the Associated Press]

That’s a little weird. Not sure what to make of it. Anna always seemed to have some pretty serious boundary issues. A part of me thinks that sounds pretty unhealthy, but the other part of me thinks it’s probably not that significant – Anna Nicole certainly did weirder things.

Another matter of note were some pills that were likely accidentally dropped by Howard K Stern. Considering a lot of people think he had something to do with Daniel’s death, it might end up being relevant.

Nurse Nadine Carey testified Tuesday that she found two round tablets on the bed that hospital employees previously said was occupied by Stern. She did not say what kind of pills they were, only that they were turned over to senior nursing staff.

Police have said there is no evidence of homicide in Daniel Smith’s death and an autopsy found the likely cause was a combination of drugs, including methadone and antidepressants.

[From the Associated Press]

Logically I doubt that there will be much of a conclusion from the inquest or that anyone will ever know for sure if someone else [Howard K Stern cough cough] had something to do with Daniel’s death. Though everything in Anna Nicole Smith’s life was so dramatic and “movie of the week” –like that you can’t help but expect some dramatic conclusion involving Howard breaking down and confessing, then throwing himself into traffic or something. Not that I’m suggesting that.

Note by Celebitchy: In March there was a story in the National Enquirer that claimed that Daniel’s autopsy results were faked and the numbers were fudged to make it look like his death was the result of a drug interaction. According to the Enquirer, the level of methadone in his system was ten times the amount reported on the official toxicology report, pointing to death by murder or suicide.

It’s far overdue, but the Bahamas will finally conduct their inquest into the death of Anna Nicole Smith’s son Daniel. Daniel died three days after Smith gave birth to her second child, daughter Dannielynn. The circumstances were very suspicious – no one can argue the terrible timing in giving birth to one child and losing one just a few days later in the same hospital room. It’s beyond tragic. There was a lot of suspicion floating around regarding Smith’s “boyfriend”/ “life partner” (I put them both in quotes because few people believe that he was actually either of those things to Smith) Howard K Stern. Some people just have that evil look about them, and it’s pretty clear that Stern wears that particular haircut to hide the stubs from the devil horns he had cosmetically reduced a few years ago.

“The long-awaited inquest in the Bahamas into the death of the son of former Playboy Playmate Anna Nicole Smith will begin on October 30, and could last two months, a senior judge in the Bahamas said on Monday.

“Bahamas Chief Magistrate Roger Gomez said at least 35 witnesses were expected to give evidence, including Smith’s longtime lawyer and companion, Howard K. Stern. The inquest would be conducted by Magistrate William Campbell, he added.

“Smith’s son, Daniel, 20, died at Doctors Hospital, Nassau, on September 10 last year, just three days after his mother gave birth to a daughter, Dannielynn. A private autopsy found he had a cocktail of drugs in his bloodstream. An official inquest by Bahamian authorities has been repeatedly postponed.”

[From the Washington Post]

Smith was supposedly worried that Stern had something to do with Daniel’s death. Aren’t we all. Ex-MSNBC reporter Rita Cosby (the one with the voice that made mute buttons feel relevant again) says in her book that Smith had some serious worries about Stern. Keep in mind, though, that this is the same book the alleges Stern and baby-daddy Larry Birkhead were gay lovers.

“In her most desperate moments, Anna Nicole Smith feared that her lawyer boyfriend Howard K. Stern played a role in her only son’s death, a new book alleges. Former employees of the ex-stripper claim they heard her screaming at Stern, ‘You did this! You killed him! You caused this!’ as the couple waited for the coroner to determine how Daniel Smith died in 2006, the book says. The allegations are detailed in the tell-all Blonde Ambition: The Untold Story Behind Anna Nicole Smith’s Death by former NBC journalist Rita Cosby.”

[From the Baltimore Sun]

I remember hearing that quote circulating through the media quite a while ago, and I guess it’s still popping up. People yell a lot of nonsensical, crazy things when they’re distraught. But they also can say true things that they’d otherwise keep to themselves, so it’s hard to say exactly what that was in reference to. It will be interesting to see what they finally rule in Daniel’s death, and exactly how this sort of inquest works in the Bahamas, and what - if anything - it’ll lead to.