LOS ANGELES: Pop legend Whitney Houston may have overdosed on drugs and alcohol before drowning face-down in her bathtub, coroners said in a new report, giving grisly details of her February death.
The 42-page coroner's report gave more details than an initial report released last month, which concluded that the Grammy-winning singer died from accidental drowning after taking cocaine, possibly triggering a heart attack.
"The decedent possibly overdosed on a narcotic substance, prescription medications, over-the-counter medications, and alcohol," said the full report released Wednesday from the Los Angeles County coroner's office.
It added that there were no signs of foul play in the 48-year-old's death.
It cited the star's personal assistant as having found her lifeless in her Beverly Hilton hotel room on February 11, hours before a star-studded party on the eve of the music industry's annual Grammys awards show.
"The personal assistant... went into the bathroom, and she found the decedent lying face down in the bathtub, unresponsive... The bathtub was filled with water, and there was water on the bathroom floor," it said.
Detailing the condition of Houston's body, it noted that "there was a bloody purge coming from her nose."
The report said a substance which was later determined to be cocaine was found in the bedroom.
"Located on the south portion of the counter was a small spoon with a white crystal-like substance in it and a rolled up piece of white paper," it said.
Various bottles were found in the hotel room in all some 12 medications prescribed by five different doctors, including anxiety treatment Xanax and the potent corticosteroid Prednisone, the report said.
It described in gruesome detail the scene when investigators arrived, after the body had been taken out of the bathtub and placed on the bedroom floor where the carpet was soaked from water overflowing from the tub.
Efforts to re-start her heart had apparently already been made. "The bathroom floor was flooded and ... much of the carpeted area of the living room was moist also, even up to where the body lay," it noted.
"The decedent was nude, lying supine on the living room floor. There was a defibrillator patch on the upper right side of her chest and there was another defibrillator patch on the left central portion of her torso.
The coroner noted "skin slippage" on various parts of her body, and a "possible old puncture wound to her inner left elbow," but said that overall the singer was "well built, muscular and fairly well nourished."
Investigators also found a hole in her nasal septum, which could have been caused by long-term cocaine use.
Houston's sudden death cast a pall over the annual gathering at the Staples Centre in Los Angeles, with several tributes to the singer and a public prayer added to the show at the last minute.
The singer of hits such as "I Will Always Love You" sold more than 170 million records during a nearly three-decade career, but also fought a long battle against substance abuse.
Last month it emerged that Houston had left all of her assets to her daughter Bobbi Kristina, born from her troubled marriage to singer Bobby Brown, who gets nothing.
A few days later Bobbi Kristina said she plans to follow her mother into show business.
Houston's sister-in-law, Patricia Houston, claimed the star's untimely death could have been predicted.
"The handwriting was kind of on the wall. I would be kidding myself to say otherwise," she told TV talk show queen Oprah Winfrey.
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