Whitney Houston’s full autopsy report has been released. (You can read the PDF on TMZ) The details are sordid, but more than that they’re just sad. Reading and thinking about it made my heart sink. There were prescription bottles and drugs found all over the room, with a total of 12 prescription drugs entered into evidence. Cops found evidence of illegal drug use including “a small spoon with a white crystal like substance in it” and “remnants of a white powdery substance” in a drawer with a portable mirror in it. This suggests that the room was not wiped clean of evidence at all. Earlier reports claiming a shady hanger-on named Raffles Von Exel removed evidence from the scene are not being taken seriously by police. (Von Exel denies giving an interview in which he allegedly admitted removing evidence.)
The detail in this report that stood out for me is the fact that Whitney died alone in the bathtub after her assistant stepped out to run an errand. The assistant found her face down in the bathtub when she returned and no one else was in the room. For some reason I got the impression that there was a group of people partying with her – there wasn’t. It was just Whitney. Officials have ruled Whitney’s death an accident, and there was no evidence of foul play. Whitney did have some small abrasions on her forehead, nose and chest, suggesting that she either fell or slid in the bathtub. (They didn’t conclude that, it’s something I’m guessing.) They also noted that she had a hole in her septum from years of cocaine use. I wasn’t a huge Whitney Houston fan, but reading this is making me get teary. I know she was an addict but it’s still very, very sad. Here’s more on the report, from Radar:
The full autopsy report has been released for Whitney Houston, and disturbing details are revealed in the forty-two page document, including there was a white substance found in the bathroom on a spoon, and that Whitney had a perforation in her posterior nasal septum, RadarOnline.com is reporting.
The report states that the last person to see Houston alive was her assistant, who told the singer to take a bath to get ready for Clive Davis’ pre-Grammys party. The assistant went to Neiman Marcus to run an errand and when she got back, the report states, “she went into the bathroom and found the decedent lying face down in the bathtub, unresponsive, with the top of her head facing west. The bathtub was filled with water and there was water on the bathroom floor, however, the water was not running. She called out to the bodyguard and they pulled the decedent out of the bathtub. The assistant then called downstairs telling them to call 911.”
Various prescription pill bottles were found in the living room and bedroom of the hotel suite but the bathroom was where the cocaine was found. “Located on the south portion of the counter was a small spoon with a white crystal substance in it and a rolled up piece of white paper, along with other miscellaneous items. Located in the top drawer in the north side of the counter were remnants of a white powdery substance and a portable mirror on a base. On the bottom of that base were more remnants of a white powdery substance.”
[From Radar]
The report concluded that toxicology “showed cocaine, benzoylecgonice, cocaethylene, marijuana, Xanax, Flexiril, and Benadryl.” As was previously announced, “Death was due to drowning due to effects of atherosclerotic heart disease and cocaine use. No foul play is suspected. The mode of death is accident.”
I’m not going to include more, if you want the details you can read them on Radar. I’m just going to hug everyone I love now.
Whitney’s mom, Cissy Houston, recently did an interview in which she said she misses Whitney and would do anything she could to bring her back. She also said she doesn’t blame herself for Whitney’s death, and that there are a lot of people coming out of the woodwork now that she’s passed. As for Cissy’s reaction to this autopsy report, she’s said to be “devastated,” especially because she doesn’t want people to remember her daughter as a drug addict.
Very sad. I feel sorry for her mother and her daughter.
I hate to say it but I think Bobby Brown’s sister had the right take on the whole situation. Everyone in that hotel room knew she was doing coke.
Thank you for the older photo of Whitney looking healthy and beautiful.
Now that that is settled I will go back to remembering and appreciating Whitney’s talent and legacy. Her addiction to drugs does not make her any less of a human deserving respect and compassion.
call me cold, but i feel nothing. she was a user, a junky, lets not get blinded by that fact that she had a good voice. and lets not blame anybody for HER using.
Don’t worry. I feel the same way as you do.
The facts speak for themselves. She will be forever known for drowning face down in a tub with 12 inches of water while using drugs. Kinda like everyone knows Elvis died while on the toilet.
Speak for yourself DreamyK…i don’t remember her like that…her songs still come into my mind from out of nowhere…it’s that and only that that i can remember her for…same with Elvis, Billy Holliday, Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin, Jimmy Hendrix, Curt Cobain, et al…their music will live forever, and the circumstances surrounding their deaths will never, ever depreciate the sheer talent and power of their artisty.
I don’t really know all the details, but I know she’s had really messed up relations for years. Regardless, I feel the same in that I wasn’t in the least saddened by her death or her cause of death. I feel for those affected by her loss, but it doesn’t seem like her drug abuse was any secret. To me it was like Amy Winehouse – a known drug abuser with a sad past, however not many actively cared about what she was doing with her life until she died. Both are very sad, but I still personally am not very pitying about the situation.
Funny you mentioned Amy-her death really upset me-“Back to Black” was such a personal album and I felt a connection to her. I know a lot of people felt protective of her, and I know a lot of people were hoping she would make it. She died young and tragic-like Heath Ledger and countless other twenty-somethings who meet their fate through mishap before they reach their full potential.
Whitney reached her potential-and threw it away. That’s the sad part here.
To all nasty comments and so cold people you are a disgrace to human kind. You are Bullies. Like YOU dont have skeletons in your closet! you are an embarrassment and everything that god never would want to create. nasty people. you should be ashamed of yourself’s. what goes around comes back around. You soon will see. You nasty people.
I’ll have to remember her both ways – the beautiful, amazing singer that I loved as a kid, and the tragic, damaged addict she became. It’s sad.
THIS!
brutal. addiction is a horrible, horrible disease.
Sorry, this might sound horrible to some people, but I have no sympathy for Whitney. Nobody forced her to take that path, it was her choice. A lot of people admired and believed in her and hoped she would turn her life around after Bobby Brown and with her comeback. I feel sorry for her daughter and mother who always loved her and supported her like many fans. She had all the chances in the world but she wanted the drugs and wasted her talent. I will remember her as just another drug addict.
The things that interested me about the autopsy report was the fact that she had breast implants, a neck lift (or neck lipo) and something done to her upper lip (listed upper lip incision antemortem). The pelvic and hip scars could also indicate a tummy tuck. Also, she had medications prescribed by at least five different physicians (one of which was for prednisone). And the condition of the body did not sound pleasant (mustache and beard, skin slippage, purge etc.)
Yup. She went “doctor shopping” when she got to LA. Quite the place for it, it appears. (Hi Mort!)
Hey guys! Just as I suspected, she also glued it all together with alcohol.
She could only been in the tub for 30-40 min max. I can almost see it, she had abrasions and the water seems really warm for being five hours later. Maybe she was wasted, ran a boiling hot tub and stepped in. Either she startled and fell in and knocked herself out or the hot water helped everything happen. Plus, the myriad of drugs and alcohol.
Surprised all her teeth were natural after all the hardcore drugs. Skin slippage because coroner was there at midnight.
Also, I am reading more. She didn’t doc shop in LA. All older scripts. She had five docs and a bunch of pharmacies, that says something.
It’s a benzo, alcohol and mostly coke thing, plus a hot bath? Rx for disaster. Many of her scripts were for antibiotics or steroids. The above are what did it. The pot and Benadryl are meh.
I noticed that after I got into it. Extensive dental prosthetics. Knew about the breast implants, bolt ons for sure.
The pred? Sounds like and the med trail of antibiotics points to a long term lung or sinus issue, pred gets rid of inflammation. Often used with the other stuff she was on. Scald burns too. I can imagine how out of it she must been. Honestly, I’m not really overwhelmed by the scrpts she had. More a cocktail of Xanax, alcohol, and coke. The flexibility is a muscle relaxant, along with the found midol and the luteal cysts I’d say she was taking those for bad cramps. She may have had some bruises due to her crazed behavior the night before.
Sorry for the length, just used to reading medical reports and coroner reports.
it said “beard and mustache ABSENT” as in she is a female, she doesn’t have facial hair! Geeze, and if anyone is submerged in 90 degree water for an hour, you can be pretty sure there is gonna be some skin slippage!
@redd, I thought it said beard and mustache. Oops. Anyway, I’ve only seen skin slippage on the elderly and people who were submerged underwater for days (and in one case, 3 months-which looked like wet tissue paper falling off of muscle and bone). I’ve also dealt with a drowning victim submerged in a lake for 1 1/2 hours with no skin slippage present. I’ve also been at this for 14 years, so I’m well aware of the myriad of postmortem changes. It seemed odd that skin slippage was present after a one hour bath. However, I am not a forensic pathologist and, if he/she believes it to be normal then, it probably is. Also, for the record, a lot of post menopausal women have facial hair. There are very few women who I don’t have to shave.
*waves @bells, @tiff*
@tiff, she did have false uppers in the form of dental implants. In one section it said she had all of her teeth, but in another it said she had false uppers. Also, for what reasons would they prescribe prednisone?
Mort, I thought it was rather odd too that she had so much skin slip – could it have been the excessively hot water? In my limited experience, skin slip seemed to happen when decomp was further advanced or with elderly folks who had wasted away prior to death…
@skuddles, yes that was my experience as well (and, like you, we also refer to it as skin slip rather than skin slippage). I guess what I was getting at was that those portions of “skin slip” were probably burst blisters from the hot water, rather than the “traditional” decomp skin slip that we’re used to where the skin cleaves off of an area in the way I described before.
Oh Mort does it better, I know you are an expert and all, but how do you ever get used to having to shave deceased people, esp. with the skin moving all about? There is like a million more things I like about my own job now (paralegal)!
Ah thanks Mort, glad to know I wasn’t offbase in my assumption that the skin slip was actually blistering from hot water.
First time I encountered skin slip was during the removal of an elderly woman from her residence… nobody had warned me about that :O
@redd, sorry, just checked back so you probably won’t see my reply! Shaving is the easy part, just like shaving the living except the “nicks” can turn into dehydration marks if the skin isn’t lotioned/moisturized properly with “massage cream,” after embalming. Dehydration marks look a lot like scrapes that are somewhat healed. As an aside, thanks for sharing what you do, I love knowing a little about people posting here. Allows me to put a little something to the name 😃
You’re right, this whole thing is so very sad. That’s too bad that Cissy doesn’t want people to remember her daughter as a drug addict, because unfortunately that is exactly how they will remember her. Whitney lost her voice and her career to drugs years ago. The denial about that should have died along with her. RIP
Believe me, I did my share of ‘partying’ in the 80’s. Wonder why I, and pretty much everyone I hung out with, could quit, and Whitney couldn’t? I know there are other addicts, but, why? She used to have an AWESOME voice…….RIP
Because addiction is more serious than “I’m not going to do cocaine anymore”. Some people can use and stop while other people fall susceptible to the disease.
But when addicts refuse treatment, that’s when I have less sympathy.
re: why she could not stop cold, used crack vs cocaine. Crack is the truly addictive one. plus even though this report says cocaine, i think the evidence — cooking it in a spoon — means she consumed it in “crack” form the day she OD’d.
I remember being a teenager, saving up my babysitting money so I could buy a record player…first Album I bought was Whitney’s. Her voice was/is from some a higher source. No autotune, pure and spritual. Will not disparage Whitney, her money, beauty & incredible success could not prevent her from destroying herself. I do believe addiction is a disease, ruins families & relationships. Hope Whitney knows how much she is still loved & is resting in peace.
Poor Bobbi Kristina doesn’t stand a chance.
Unfortunately Whitney kept a lot of enablers around her. I don’t think she stood a chance that way. Look at her own sister n law who did the Oprah interview. She totally lied about the drug use. I’m guessing she hoped the autopsy report wouldn’t reveal it. I hope Bobbi Kristina can get away from Whitney’s group.
In any case, I will always remember her for her beautiful voice.
I get goosebumps everytime I read anything about her.
She had an amazing voice and was one of my favourite artists when I was a kid. After The Bodyguard I kind of lost track of her as I got older. I knew she was an addict and that her life was spiraling out of control but I never knew how much until I saw her two day interview with Oprah a couple of years ago. It broke my heart.
To me Whitney will always be on my ipod in her glory. I will think of her and think of how unfortunate her life became and how sad it was that she couldn’t get clean.
I read the full report last night and what struck me the most was the fact that Whitney died in very hot water – so hot it actually scalded her. Had she intended to let it cool but suffered a seizure and collapsed in tub instead? Oddly too, not only was the bathroom floor covered in water but water had also seeped into other parts of her hotel suite. This interested me as I had read a while back that a guest staying one floor below claimed his room was flooded later that evening. Was the water allowed to overflow tub and if so, why no mention of this anywhere?
RIP Whitney.
re : bath, i wonder if Whitney told someone she was going to take a bath. IE was her excuse to get alone and get high. so had the water running, running to make the “taking a bath story” legit. that would explain not carefully monitoring her water temp, if she had not real plans to get in. being high, she probably was not watching the water as carefully. as some point, when the tub overflows, she goes to turn it off and falls in, maybe slips and conks her head (ie, abraisons). being unconscious and in the water, she suffocates.
Makes total sense Anon73 that Whitney used the “having a bath” scenario to give herself an opportunity to get high in the privacy of the bathroom. The drug paraphernalia was tucked away in a drawer after all, that may have been her stash drawer for days prior to her death. And we certainly know from past history that she favored the john as a private drug den… but I do believe she really intended to take a bath. She was nude at the time and she had also placed a container of olive oil in the water to soften her skin, plus a towel was found in tub – which I believe was covering her hair at one point to keep it dry (and guessing it came off when she fell into the water). But I still don’t believe she meant to get into the tub so soon – something – seizure? coronary? caused her to fall in prematurely and drown. Makes me wonder if she had some sort of episode while bath was running, allowing water temp to go unchecked and tub to overflow, then perhaps she came out of it long enough to turn off the facet, only to suffer a more severe episode and collapse?? Pure conjecture on my part of course…
She was rocking the coke up and smoking it, thus the spoon. This is what crackheads do when they can’t buy crack that is already in crystal form.
And as to why she couldn’t stop when others can? Most people would have run out of money a long time before. That is actually what stops the avg person from using to the grave. If someone has almost unlimited funds, they may have a very tough time getting away from it, my sympathies. She had a gorilla on her back.
Sad but true.
The official report states that her upper teeth were a complete set of dental implants and lower teeth absent…the initial report stated natural teeth…read down into the report…
I’ve always thought after hearing about her death that *despite* everything in her system (and how used to it she might be), Xanax and Benadryl ALONE are enough to make you dizzy and faint. Combine that reaction with other stuff and you get a recipe for disaster; not to mention if you were in a room that was warm, you’d feel sleepy. Sad though.
Celebitchy, WHY are you getting sad and tearful over this? None of us knew her, she wasn’t cruelly taken from the world by cancer or something, she did this to herself. She knew 100% that she was playing with fire mixing so many drugs and she didn’t stop because she didn’t want to. Let’s face it is anyone gonna have the same sympathy if Blohan suffers a similar fate? Hell no, so why is Whitney getting a pass. Yes she could sing DAMN WELL but she had more opportunities than any of us and chose to destroy her life.
Sorry if above comment is harsh but I know 2 people dying of inoperable brain tumours, one of whom is only 21, so forgive me if I can’t be sad about a drug addict
I’m still trying to picture a scenario where she ends up completely in the tub and face down in the water, how does that happen? Maybe sitting on the side of the tub and snorting? Also couldn’t tell if the amount of fluid in her lungs was really consistent with drowning. The heart muscle was messed up from drug use but they did not find an outright sign of heart attack (the muscle tissue does change). Maybe she was sitting on the side of the tub, passed out and feel forward? Oh yeah, and there was no brain hemorrhage or stroke.
She was on hefty steroid doses, dexamethasone is a really strong steroid. It can make you pretty emotionally crazy too.