Whitney Houston 'may have died of drink and prescription drugs'

London, Feb 14 (ANI): Latest reports in the case of Whitney Houston's death suggest that the singer may have died of prescription drugs and alcohol, rather than drowning in the bath.

However, it will take the medical examiners around two months to get a conclusive answer.

The singer's family was reportedly told by officials that she did not have enough water in her lungs to immediately conclude that drowning was the cause of death.

She had taken a combination of the sedative Xanax and other prescription drugs with alcohol, and could have died before her head went under the water, the Telegraph reported.

Houston had drunk alcohol shortly before getting into the bath.

According to Tmz, a police source said that it was possible she suffered a heart attack caused by a reaction to medication, but it was too early to definitively decide what killed her.

On Friday night, less than 24 hours before Houston died, her daughter Bobbi Kristina Brown, 18, reportedly fell asleep in a bath in another room on the same floor at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles, and security had to be contacted to come and unlock the door.

Brown has been hospitalised twice since her mother's death for "stress and anxiety".

It also emerged that it was Houston's aunt Mary Jones who found her in room 434 the night before the Grammy Awards.

Jones had been laying out a dress for Houston to wear to a party that night. She left the suite for half an hour and returned to discover the singer still in the bathroom.

Los Angeles assistant chief coroner Ed Winter said it could take six to eight weeks for toxicology reports to determine exactly how Houston died.

He said prescription bottles were found in the hotel room but they were all "pretty normal" prescriptions.

"I have more prescriptions than what was found in her room. I know there were reports of, did she drown or was it an overdose, but I will not be commenting on that," he added.

Houston's brother-in-law Billy Watson vehemently denied that the singer would have had any intention of committing suicide.

"Oh, no, this is accidental. She wouldn't have left her daughter like that. She wouldn't have done that to her daughter," he said.

Police are questioning her friends, relatives and staff to investigate her erratic behaviour in the days and weeks before she died, which included heavy drinking on the two nights before her death.

She was also known to have been at a Hollywood nightclub on February 2 where she drank cognac and champagne, and was described as a "total wreck".

Some of the pills found in Houston's room were from prescriptions filled at the same pharmacy used by Michael Jackson.

Apart from Xanax, police found Amoxicillin, for sore throats, and Midol, for menstrual cramps, in Houston's room.

The singer's mother Cissy Houston is arranging to take possession of her remains and a memorial service may be held this weekend.

Houston's body was being flown to New Jersey by her family. Tyler Perry, the Hollywood movie mogul offered a private plane. A funeral is expected to be held there at the weekend. (ANI)