How Did Whitney Houston Die? Where Did She Die? Who Found Her?

There have been a few developments in the story of how Whitney Houston died that it’s easier to address in a new post.

Whitney Houston died at 48-years-old in the bathtub of room 434 of the Beverly Hilton Hotel, the same location at which she was scheduled to sing for the annual Clive Davis pre-Grammys party hours later (the party went ahead without Davis present).

There’s no confirmed cause of death yet, but there’s a mostly-clear timeline of what happened (drawing from People/ Us Weekly/ TMZ/ RadarOnline’s reports).

There were rumours that Houston’s on-off boyfriend, Ray J, with whom she was seen a week ago, found her body. However Ray J’s publicist says his client was “no where near” the scene at the time, insisting a bodyguard found her. The bodyguard raised the alarm. The Beverly Hills Police department say a 911 call was placed from the Beverly Hilton Hotel at 3:43 p.m.. Minutes later, police and paramedics arrived on the scene to find Houston unresponsive. Depending on which website you believe, TMZ or RadarOnline, either hotel staff or paramedics attempted CPR. In either case, the effort was unsuccessful and she was pronounced dead at 3:55 p.m. PST Saturday February 11, 2012.

The singer’s ex-husband, Bobby Brown, is in Memphis for a New Edition concert and CNN report he is “is struggling and devastated.” TMZ.com add Brown is “in and out of crying fits.” The couple’s only child together, Bobbi Kristina Brown, who will be 19-years-old next month, is in Los Angeles and is “not doing well,” according to her father. The teenager went to the hotel a few hours after the news broke and demanded to see her mother’s body. However, police stopped her entering the fourth floor room because it’s sealed in anticipation of a search warrant being issued. Police did the same with Houston’s cousin, Dionne Warwick, who arrived later that afternoon. And police did the same with Ray J, who TMZ says went from his home to the hotel  after hearing the news of Houston’s passing.

Family and friends who were in the room when authorities arrived have identified the body.

L.A. County Coroner Ed Winter told TMZ.com’s cameras at 7:09 p.m. PST it was too early in the investigation to confirm what happened. Although TMZ itself has started speculating: “No illegal drugs have been found in the hotel room where Whitney Houston died, but prescription drugs were present… and it’s possible the singer drowned in the bathtub [so] it will take an autopsy to determine if she overdosed, drowned, or died from another cause” report the website. “[Police] found various pill bottles. There was no evidence that Whitney was drinking alcohol in the room.”

Side note: There’s also a photo of Houston’s dead body being removed on a gurney posted on TMZ’s homepage that’s not being posted here because death photos are too macabre to inflict on people without warning.

You can read reactions from friends and other celebrities in an earlier post.