Drowning unlikely cause of singer’s death

Los Angeles – Whitney Houston may have died after taking prescription medicines and alcohol, but probably did not drown in her bath, investigators believe.

Houston, 48, was found in the bath in her room at the Beverly Hilton hotel, Los Angeles, on Sunday afternoon. It is thought that her aunt, Mary Jones, found her. Jones had laid out a dress for the singer and left the room for about half an hour; when she returned Houston was uncon- scious. At 3.55pm local time the singer was pronounced dead after paramedics could not revive her.

‘‘She was underwater and apparently unconscious,’’ Beverly Hills police said yesterday.

Coroners appear to be discounting the theory that Houston drowned because there was insufficient water in her lungs. Yesterday the Los Angeles County Coroner’s office said Houston’s family could collect her body – a move that suggests there is no sus- picion of foul play. Her body was flown yesterday to New Jersey, where she was born. Her family raised the possibility of holding a wake on Friday and a funeral on Saturday.

According to celebrity website Tmz.com, which has a track record of accurate reporting on Hollywood deaths, the family has been told that ‘‘the singer did not die from drowning, but rather from what appears to be a combination of [the anti-anxiety drug] Xanax and other prescription drugs mixed with alcohol’’.

It is expected to be several weeks before toxicology reports are completed.

Houston is reported to have made two visits to doctors in the five days before she died. Some of the prescriptions found in her room are said to have been from the same pharmacy that supplied prescriptions for the painkiller Demerol for Michael Jackson who died in 2009.