Whitney Houston passed away on February 11, 2012, at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California. She was found in her hotel room just hours before she was scheduled to attend Clive Davis’ annual pre-Grammys party. Her death was a tragic loss to the music world and her fans.
“I can confirm that Whitney Houston was pronounced dead at 3:55 p.m. at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. We received a call at 3:43 p.m. from hotel security and Beverly Hills fire and police responded minutes later,” Beverly Hills Police Lieutenant Mark Rosen said in a statement to at the time.
“Someone in her entourage found her unresponsive in her room … It’s unclear who notified hotel staff because she has quite an entourage here at the hotel. We attempted to resuscitate her, to no avail.”
When asked if there was any evidence of drugs or foul play, Rosen told,
“At this time, there’s no obvious evidence of foul play or cause of death.”
The Los Angeles County coroner’s office confirmed on March 22, 2012, that Whitney Houston’s cause of death was accidental drowning.
The investigation revealed that she had cocaine, marijuana, Xanax, Benadryl, and other medications in her system.
The coroner’s report also indicated that heart disease and cocaine use were contributing factors to her death.
“There was water found in her lungs that indicated to us that she was alive when she was submerged underwater,” coroner chief Craig Harvey told.
“According to our tests, the level of cocaine was not necessarily a lethal level of cocaine. But her death was complicated by chronic cocaine use and heart disease.”
“She could’ve passed out first due to the intoxication from the cocaine, or she could’ve had a heart attack and then drowned,” he said.
“It’s probably one of those two scenarios.” Coroner officials also confirmed that prescription pill bottles were found in Houston’s room, but the number of pills were “not in alarming amounts.”
Whitney Houston was indeed buried at Fairview Cemetery in Westfield, New Jersey, on February 19, 2012. She was laid to rest alongside her father, John Russell Houston, who had passed away in 2003.
