Beverly Hills Police Lt. Mark Rosen says that the law enforcement agency looking into the death of Whitney Houston has "concluded our portion of the investigation at the hotel," according to CBS News. And Rosen adds that
"As of right now," Houston's case isn't a "criminal investigation."
The Beverly Hills PD Lt., however, has asked the Los Angeles County Coroner to "place a security hold on their findings," at least until the toxicology results have been finalized People Magazine reported. Police say they are taking this action in order to "reduce speculation" about Houston's death cause.
But now that an autopsy has been conducted and Houston's body released to the family, law enforcement could say definitively if water was found in the pop singer's lungs, as some have alleged, as well as put the heart attack theory to rest, which the assistant coroner, Ed Winter, mentioned as a possibility. (Article, profile continued below)
Before the gagging of the coroner's office; however, CBS reported that the LA County Coroner's Assistant Chief, Ed Winter, said that "half a dozen prescription drug bottles" were found in Houston's room, leading many to speculate on an overdose or suicide attempt by the singer found submerged in water in her hotel room bathtub.
Profiler
CBS reported that the Beverly Hills Police said "there were no indications of foul play and no obvious signs of trauma on Houston's body."
Once the coroner performed the autopsy on Whitney they were able to immediately ascertain if the singer had water in her lungs. If she did, the fact that no trauma was found on her body indicates she was most likely not held under the water by another person.
Likewise, the coroner would have immediately found internal signs of a heart attack, if that had been the cause of death of the celebrity.
If reducing media and public speculation really had been the goal of police when ordering the coroner's office to withhold autopsy findings from the public, the absence of water in the lungs (and lack of evidence of a heart attack cause of death) would have prompted police to admit those findings.
This would have silenced speculation immediately and is often done in such investigations. Police just tell the public that it is a "preliminary" finding in such cases, and that additional information could result after toxicology reports come in, but are not expected.
But the fact that police have emphasized that "As of right now" this isn't a criminal investigation--and they have prohibited the coroner's office from revealing any information--speaks more to the possibility that they may believe Whitney's death (possibly due to drowning, if water was in the lungs), could be due to drugs ingested that were not found in the prescription containers found.
If that is true, they would be seeking to determine who supplied her with the illegal substances. They will be using the current interviewing time period to locate and talk to those people who were present at the time of her death--and those she interacted with in the hours and days preceding it.
Tox reports will show if prescription drugs were the only substances in Houston's body at the time of her death, or if other substances were also present and contributed to her death.
To read exactly what information is detailed in an autopsy report visit National Criminal Profiler Radell Smith's "What Whitney Houston's autopsy report will contain," article.
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