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This episode features Whitney Houston, a singer and actress with a once-in-a-generation voice that propelled her to stardom. No amount of talent could protect her from the demons that brought about her death in a hotel bathroom at the age of 48.
#autopsy #artist #music # whitney houston
#autopsy #artist #music # whitney houston
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00:03This is security from Beverly Hilton. Hi, what's going on? I need a paramedic apparently. I've got a 46-year
00:07-old female found in the bathroom. Apparently she wasn't breathing. Is that row 434? Yes. She was not breathing? Yes.
00:13Okay, but she is breathing now? I don't know.
00:17Singer Whitney Houston, one of the greatest voices of our generation, seen and has gotten confirmation from her representative, has
00:23died.
00:24In her lifetime, she sold more than 200 million records, propelling her from a gospel choir to global stardom.
00:33But at 3.36pm on February 11th, 2012, Whitney Houston was found unconscious in a bath in a Hollywood hotel.
00:44They attempted life-saving resuscitation measures. Unfortunately, they were not successful, and at approximately 3.55pm, Whitney Houston was pronounced
00:53dead at the Beverly Hilton Hotel.
00:55We have detectives upstairs and crime scene investigators, and they're conducting an investigation right now to try and determine the
01:01cause of death.
01:06This is the coroner's autopsy report on the body of Whitney Houston. And the thing about autopsy reports is that
01:13if you know how to read them, they can give you a whole story of someone's life, but crucially, they
01:18can tell you about the days and hours leading up to their death.
01:22World-renowned forensic pathologist Dr. Richard Sheppard has been performing high-profile autopsies for more than 25 years.
01:31His expertise has been called on for the Bloody Sunday inquiry, the aftermath of the September 11th attacks, and the
01:39inquest into the death of Princess Diana.
01:42The coroner ruled that Whitney Houston's death was an accident, but there was nothing about their first examination that gave
01:47a particular cause of death.
01:49There were a number of minor injuries, bruises and grazes and abrasions on the face and other areas of the
01:54body, and it wouldn't have been immediately obvious whether they were caused before death, after death, or during resuscitation.
02:01To begin to understand those injuries, two things must follow. Firstly, a further examination of the body, and secondly, a
02:09better understanding of the circumstances that surrounded her death.
02:16Five days before she died, Whitney Houston was in LA for the 2012 Grammy Awards.
02:23She checked into room 434 of the Beverly Hilton Hotel under the pseudonym Elizabeth Collins.
02:31After a long, highly publicised battle with drug addiction, and numerous abortive comeback attempts,
02:40Houston is finally making progress on a proper return to the limelight.
02:45Nine months out of rehab, she has just finished filming the lead role in an upcoming movie.
02:51In a few days' time, all eyes will be on her at the annual pre-Grammy party, hosted by legendary
02:58music mogul Clive Davis, the man who discovered her and shaped her career.
03:05Despite years of negative headlines, Houston still has an army of fans.
03:11If she can resist falling back into her old habits, Clive Davis' party and the Grammys the following night will
03:17send a firm message that Whitney Houston is back.
03:21But for a former addict, a week in the city of temptation can be a very long time.
03:28The further examination showed that actually she was in pretty good shape. She was wearing a wig, but she did
03:34also have a full head of hair underneath it.
03:36She'd had minor breast augmentation surgery, she had some dental work, but for a Hollywood star, she was remarkably natural.
03:44In the 1980s, under Clive Davis' guidance, Houston's unique talent made her the biggest female recording star on the planet.
03:52Pop music was going through a little bit of a dearth. You had a lot of electronic music, you had
03:58a lot of artists who were essentially working on image.
04:01Suddenly, along came Whitney Houston. She had the voice, she had these astonishing looks, and she had the songs which
04:09made everyone get up and dance.
04:11She was the ultimate package. Aretha Franklin had been the voice of soul, but by 1985, Whitney had taken her
04:19crown and the world was fascinated by her.
04:24The next step in any autopsy is to perform an internal examination, to look at the body's organs, try and
04:32understand what is occurring in them.
04:34And a particular area of interest with Houston would, of course, be the throat, because Whitney was known to have
04:39an extraordinary voice,
04:40and yet there was nothing about her vocal cords that would indicate the voice that she had.
04:46Houston's autopsy is proof that her legendary voice was due to something other than physical prowess.
04:52Part of the reason why Whitney Houston was so great is because she was raised in the gospel tradition.
04:56The way that you sing has an effect on your voice.
05:00Because of her gospel singing, she was sort of doing early vocal exercise, so her gospel training was crucial.
05:07I looked at her as one of the models that people should look to if you wanted to become a
05:11great singer,
05:12because she had all the qualities that great singing involves.
05:15Powerful sound, big high notes, resonant singing, but she also could sing very, very delicately and seduce you with the
05:23beauty of her voice.
05:23It's that combination combined with her passion and her soul that made her special.
05:33Three days later, Houston is heading out to a nightclub, and she has good reason to celebrate.
05:39She and Clive Davis have agreed that she will record a new album in August.
05:44But the voice that catapulted her to stardom has been in trouble for years.
05:50The influence of hard-living R&B star Bobby Brown during their stormy 15-year marriage was catastrophic.
05:57Their lifestyle took a heavy toll on Houston's voice.
06:00At times, it left her struggling even to speak.
06:04To deal with the problem, she sought the help of specialist voice coach Gary Katona.
06:09You can imagine how shocked that was to hear her voice in that condition.
06:13It was sort of an embarrassing situation, because here she is, you know, this world-famous singer with this unbelievable
06:19voice, with no voice at all.
06:21So obviously she made some that you might consider very bad life choices.
06:25If the damage to Houston's voice was caused by her lifestyle, it would be reasonable to expect that there would
06:32be some physical evidence on the vocal cords that would show up in the autopsy.
06:36But the results there are surprising.
06:39There was nothing in her throat and neck that would indicate that there was any particular damage to explain why
06:45her voice was lost.
06:46But when we looked lower down the air passages, there was some damage to her lungs, damage called emphysema, that's
06:52commonly associated with smoking.
06:54And of course, smoking damages the whole of the air passages and is well known to affect the vocal cords
07:00and cause changes in the singing and talking voice.
07:02In preparation for her new album, Houston has promised Clive Davis that she will finally quit smoking.
07:09But numerous full ashtrays found in room 434 tell a different story.
07:15The autopsy evidence tells us even more.
07:19We know from the toxicology results that it's not just cigarettes that she's been smoking, she's also been smoking marijuana.
07:29A former driver of Houston's remembers she was no stranger to weed.
07:34I first realized she was doing drugs at the bodyguard.
07:38I don't know if that was Bobby and his security people or whatever, but it was that strong smelling pot.
07:45But by 98 on that airport run that I did, it was bad.
07:50And Whitney could hardly talk, she was very hoarse.
07:54She was like, oh, hey baby, how you doing?
07:56Good to see you again, baby.
07:58Yeah, you gonna get me to the airport safe and sound in one piece?
08:01I'm not feeling so good right now.
08:03Aside from the damage it could cause to her voice, for an ex-addict to be smoking marijuana may be
08:09more serious than it seems.
08:12Recreational marijuana use isn't uncommon.
08:14However, if you smoke it, the likelihood is you become a little bit less concerned about other drugs.
08:20So you go to one dealer, that dealer gives you marijuana.
08:23They also deal in cocaine, for example, which means that you might move back on to stronger drugs.
08:29By returning to drug use, Houston was risking more than her comeback.
08:35Marijuana lingers in the bloodstream for a long time, so all the toxicology can tell us for certain is that
08:40she's been smoking marijuana in the days leading up to her death.
08:44But in fact, that's just the tip of the iceberg.
08:51Two days before her death, Houston is celebrating a deal to record a new album.
08:57She is seen arriving at True Hollywood nightclub for a party hosted by Grammy nominee Kelly Price.
09:02Whitney Houston was tabloid gold. She sold millions of magazines, millions of newspapers.
09:06So it was my job to follow her around for the week she was here to monitor anything she did
09:12and was going on in her life.
09:15Later that evening, Price makes a speech honoring Houston.
09:19She pushed me to sing to my limit. It didn't take.
09:22Houston responds by unexpectedly joining her on stage to sing an impromptu rendition of Jesus Loves Me.
09:38All I can tell you is that over time, she was getting better.
09:52It wasn't 100% fact that she was able to sing and to do a decent record.
09:57We're here.
09:58We're here.
10:01We're here.
10:02We're here.
10:03We're here.
10:04We're here.
10:05We're here.
10:06We're here.
10:06Spontaneous gig over, Houston rejoins her entourage in the VIP area with a new man in her life, 31-year
10:13-old musician Ray J.
10:15Houston had divorced Brown in 2006, seeking a quieter life as she battled her addictions.
10:24Her romance with Ray J was a cause for concern. The party lifestyle of his circle of friends was no
10:30secret.
10:33When doing the internal examination, the first thing that would have caused the coroner some concern is what we term
10:39a fatty liver.
10:40A fatty liver occurs when the metabolic processes in the liver are disturbed. Fat globules form within the liver cells.
10:48This makes the liver bigger and pale. A fatty liver indicates that someone has been abusing alcohol.
10:55It tells you nothing about their drinking habits many years previously. It tells you about the time of the weeks
11:00and days prior to their death.
11:03The changes that we see in Whitney's liver may be heavy drinking over several weeks prior to her death or
11:10a single large episode of binge drinking very close to her death.
11:16And for Houston, drinking was only ever a small part of the problem.
11:20Binge drinking clearly lowers inhibitions. So if you've been an addict, when you are drunk, you may think it's a
11:27good idea to do something that's sober, you wouldn't.
11:29And that's how you can end up having a relapse.
11:33The next major finding by the coroner about Whitney's lifestyle was the fact she had a perforated nasal septum.
11:40The septum is the piece of tissue that runs up the centre of the nose. And perforation of this septum
11:45is typical of insufflation, snorting of cocaine.
11:51Cocaine that's snorted is the cocaine hydrochloride. The salt of cocaine, it is an irritant, but that's actually not what
11:57causes the perforation.
11:59What causes the perforation is the direct effect of the cocaine drug on the blood vessels in the nose.
12:06Cocaine causes the blood vessels to close up tight. And when that happens, the tissues of the nose are deprived
12:13of blood and oxygen.
12:15And over time, they die and a perforation occurs. And that's what Whitney Houston had.
12:21A perforated septum is conclusive proof. Whitney Houston had a chronic problem with cocaine.
12:30That night at True Hollywood, however, as far as anyone close to her is concerned, Houston has been drug free
12:36for months.
12:37But evidence found in room 434 suggests this wasn't the case.
12:42The list of items recovered from her room includes a portable mirror with what is described as remnants of a
12:48white powdery substance on it, which was later found to be cocaine.
12:52On top of the circumstantial evidence, the toxicology leaves us in no doubt that Houston had returned to cocaine use
12:59in the days before her death.
13:02I know what they want. They want the highest quality shit. That's why they go to me.
13:05In a never-before-seen interview given just days after her death, the drug dealer who sold cocaine to Houston
13:12in her final days came forward.
13:14She looked a lot older than I would think, you know? She looked like she'd been throwed hard, put away
13:20wet type of thing, you know?
13:21She'd been through a lot, but no more than any other semi-washed-up fucking Hollywood chick, whatever.
13:31The dealer reveals that in the last week of her life, he sold Houston drugs both at her hotel and
13:36that night in the club.
13:38It was around like 12.31ish, something like that, later in the night, in their little VIP area.
13:44They got fucking free bottles and shit. They were drinking all night.
13:49He goes on to describe a well-practiced routine that he says he and Houston used for doing drug deals
13:55in full view of onlookers, unnoticed even by members of her own entourage.
14:00Basically what happens, she's already there. I show up, ask for an autograph, and I got a pen ready, full
14:09of coke.
14:11She's already got the money ready, she knows what's going on. Hand it to her, sign it, she keeps a
14:15pen.
14:16Gives me the autograph and the money's in there. Works out pretty good.
14:39In the club, after scoring cocaine, things for Houston start to go downhill.
14:47An argument breaks out with an X Factor contestant named Stacy Francis, who Houston feels is getting too close to
14:54her new man.
14:55Another finding from the toxicology that makes interesting reading is the presence of coquethylene in the blood.
15:01Coquethylene is a drug that's formed in the body when both cocaine and alcohol are present at the same time.
15:11One of the interesting things about finding coquethylene in the blood is that it has been linked with causing aggressive
15:17behaviour.
15:18Houston explodes at Francis and has to be pulled away by members of her entourage.
15:23She's still fuming as she leaves the club.
15:26When Whitney leaves True Nightclub, she walks out into the glare of the paparazzi scrum.
15:31That was always going to make a huge splash in the papers the next day.
15:41Another embarrassing episode making headline news is the last thing that Houston's comeback needs.
15:47Cocaine is a hard drug and by saying that I mean that if you take it and you like it,
15:52the likelihood is you're going to want more of it.
15:54And this can lead to lots of bad life decisions.
15:56It has a potential to cause you much damage emotionally when you're coming down from it and also physically the
16:02impact it has on your body.
16:05The coroner's report shows that the right coronary artery of Whitney Houston's heart was narrowed by 60% due to
16:12atherosclerosis.
16:14Atherosclerosis is the furring up of the artery and it's caused when the lining of the artery is damaged.
16:20That damage is stuck to by platelets, tiny cells within the bloodstream which then attract globules of fat.
16:27As the wall gets thickened by this fat and platelet, it narrows down to just a tiny pinhole eventually.
16:37It's very common in the elderly. It is a very strong associating with the smoking of tobacco.
16:42But to find it this severe in someone aged 48 strongly suggests that other factors have played a part.
16:51It was in the early 90s. We were en route to the Shrine Auditorium and she says, OK, get off
16:57at Gage Avenue.
17:00And Gage Avenue off the 110 is, you know, the crappiest part of L.A.
17:05Not the kind of place you see a big white stretch limousine very often, you know, and the usual guys
17:10on the street corners.
17:12And so she's like, OK, now pull up over here.
17:15And she goes, come here, baby, what you got for me?
17:18You know, and he's like, oh, shit, man, I can't believe it. Look who it is.
17:21Damn, girl, what you need from me, man? I'll do what you want.
17:24You know, and so she says, what you got for me?
17:27He says, I got this. And he has a bag and it's got a bunch of little rocks in it.
17:31And she says, OK, I'll take that. And he goes, you got some money for me, girl?
17:36She says, yeah. And she just hands him big, you know, it was a roll.
17:40She handed him, it was hundreds.
17:42Drugs bought in rock form from a street dealer are unlikely to be anything other than crack.
17:48But Houston adamantly denied using the drug, infamously coining the phrase,
17:53crack is whack when confronted about it.
17:57In 2006, however, Houston's sister-in-law publicly outed her as a crack user.
18:03Despite this, in 2009, Houston was still denying crack use.
18:08But in an interview with Oprah, she did admit to lacing her joints with freebase cocaine.
18:14This continued a pattern of Houston apparently admitting to something,
18:18but only as a cover for something worse.
18:20Houston was also relying on the audience's ignorance of illegal drugs,
18:24because the distinction between freebase cocaine and crack
18:27is largely one of stigma rather than substance.
18:32Freebase cocaine is cocaine with the hydrochloride salt removed,
18:36so that users can smoke it the same way as crack.
18:40Usually by heating it in a spoon or a glass pipe and inhaling the fumes.
18:44And as Al Bowman's recollection proves, Houston wasn't just lacing her joints.
18:51The year was 1997.
18:52I noticed that smell.
18:56There's a certain smell of a mixture of butane, burning glass,
19:07and those chemicals that are in crack.
19:11And I'm going, oh my God, I can't believe what I'm witnessing.
19:15These guys are, they're hitting crack pipe.
19:21And that's when I roll down the divider and go, hey.
19:23And I see, you know, the glass pipe with Whitney, with her lips on the stem.
19:29And I'm just mortified, you know, because I just thought,
19:33well, you know, I've seen this before.
19:34I've seen, you know, Motley Crue snorting cocaine.
19:38I've seen, you know, all kinds of rock stars smoking pot
19:42and doing all kinds of things, but this was a little shocking even for me.
19:48Given Houston's huge wealth,
19:50it seems likely that free-based cocaine was indeed her primary addiction.
19:55But like any addict, when her drug of choice was in scarce supply,
19:59Houston would take whatever she could get to stave off withdrawal.
20:03It's hard to describe how dangerous smoking free-based cocaine is.
20:07It causes damage to almost every organ in the body.
20:10And what's more, it's a highly addictive compound.
20:13And so once taken, it tends to be used over and over again.
20:17And the damage is caused again and again.
20:20It's one of those drugs that is so highly addictive
20:23and that you form your world around,
20:25that starting to break out from that is incredibly difficult.
20:31In the early hours of Friday morning,
20:34an exhausted Houston returns to her room.
20:39In less than 36 hours,
20:43she will be dead.
20:57Later that night, in the early hours of Friday the 10th,
21:01a calmer, more sober Houston uses a pair of broken glasses
21:04to read passages from the Bible with a member of her entourage.
21:10Houston had often turned to God as a way of overcoming her addictions.
21:14So Houston reading the Bible is a good sign.
21:18If she can find the strength to stop what she's doing,
21:21her looming public appearances may yet not end in disaster.
21:26This is her last chance.
21:34The following day, Houston spends time with her daughter, Bobby Christina.
21:39But her relapse and public meltdown have not gone unnoticed by the press.
21:43The week before Whitney died, I worked on a story with the Enquirer,
21:47where we predicted that she was on the downward spiral and ultimately she was headed towards death.
21:54And that was something that she caught upon and she saw in the gift shop.
22:00It obviously freaked her out and she went absolutely ballistic at the sales clerk.
22:05Furious, Houston has to be pulled away and calmed down by her daughter.
22:11But back in her room, she has more direct methods of calming down.
22:16The toxicology report shows there were also benzodiazepines present in her bloodstream,
22:21a drug called Flexeril and another called Xanax.
22:26Benzodiazepines are anti-anxiety, anti-depressant drugs that cause sedation.
22:32Benzodiazepines, when they are correctly administered for the right reasons, are useful.
22:37The problem is, they are highly addictive drugs.
22:41Realistically as well, you have to question whether somebody should be prescribed drugs at all
22:46if they have had a history of addiction.
22:48Because the reality is that people will look at forming other addictions
22:52if they have had an addictive past.
22:54In room 434, scene investigators discovered eight different prescription drugs
23:00from five different doctors, all prescribed to Whitney Houston.
23:04In America, using multiple sources to obtain the same types of drug is referred to as doctor shopping
23:10and is often used by addicts to get the quantity of drugs they need without arousing suspicion.
23:16One of the problems with medication is very often it bypasses the essential need within the patient.
23:23That's an emotional one.
23:24You can medicate, you can sedate somebody with issues, but the reality is they need to work through them.
23:30And giving them something that numbs the pain isn't actually helpful to their process.
23:35So sometimes you have to ask yourself, should we medicate or should we actually work with that person therapeutically?
23:44By the evening of Friday the 10th, celebrities from across the world of music have gathered in LA for the
23:49Grammys.
23:50Houston is spotted in the hotel bar.
23:53I genuinely think that she put so much pressure on herself with his comeback
23:56and she was so adamant that she, you know, needed to impress all her fans and anyone that was watching
24:01and all the waiting world
24:02that she was desperate to tell everybody.
24:05Houston is not drinking with fellow Grammy-goers.
24:08The people she is with are ordinary hotel guests amazed to be drinking with a superstar.
24:13It was quite clear that they were hangers-on.
24:16They were somebody who, you know, didn't really know Whitney that well
24:18and didn't really have the best interests of Whitney at heart.
24:21But not everyone in the bar that night is a stranger.
24:25She didn't appear wasted. She wasn't wasted.
24:28She had been drinking, she wasn't wasted.
24:31Met her in the lounge, real quick, asked for autograph, do the pen trick again.
24:38A lot of these kind of has-been type celebrities, if you will, they're like fading away.
24:45They're not really in the spotlight anymore.
24:47So they just need something to pep them up, you know, just get that feel-good feeling again.
24:53So they just hit me up. I mean, they just want to feel good.
24:56They want to have a good time. I'm going to help them do that.
25:00The problem with addiction is that you have to recognise that you are an addict.
25:04And the reason that a lot of people realise they're an addict is because they lose their home,
25:08they lose their families, they don't have accessible funds so that they can go and get their drugs.
25:12When you are rich, when you are somebody like Whitney Houston, literally, you have the means to get whatever you
25:19want.
25:19And this means the likelihood is you won't recognise it.
25:22Even though it's destroying your health, your home, your family, your career, you will feel in control.
25:28And an addict who feels in control is an addict who is in the most dangerous situation of all.
25:36A personal lives.
25:49VAIX PROSEEGAN
25:50Saturday morning, Whitney Houston is asleep in Room 434 of the Beverly Hilton Hotel.
25:57tonight her mentor Clive Davis will throw his annual pre-Grammy party Houston will be the
26:03focus of attention for 800 guests but a recent behavior has shown she is far from ready for a
26:09public comeback at the time the words around the Whitney camp was that there were problems
26:16while publicly her image consultants were saying no everything's fine she's gonna have a great
26:21comeback in reality we knew there were deep-seated issues it was more about dreaming about the comeback
26:27than actually making it really happen after days of partying Houston awakes feeling unwell again she
26:37turns to medication the toxicology report shows there was a cough medicine Benadryl in her
26:46bloodstream and also high levels of ibuprofen so on top of the benzodiazepines the cocktail of drugs
26:53she's taking is starting to mount up and all of these drugs have the potential to cause the same
26:58side effect drowsiness the problem with mixing drugs like benzodiazepines and Benadryl is it
27:06increases the effect and that means that the user is unaware of how much is too much in the early
27:11afternoon Houston speaks with her cousin the singer Dionne Warwick at this point apparently there were
27:18no signs of trouble Warwick later said that Houston seemed upbeat and happy Houston's personal
27:26assistant Mary Jones lays out a dress for her to wear at the evening's event and suggests that Houston
27:33takes a bath at 2.45 p.m. Jones heads off to do some errands leaving Houston alone in room
27:40434
27:58the last phone call that Houston makes is to a pastor friend who she had turned to throughout her
28:04problems with addiction her friend doesn't answer there were no witnesses to what happened next except
28:13Houston herself key card records from the hotel show that Mary Jones re-entered room 434 at 3.36 p
28:29.m.
28:31as she goes back in Jones notices that the floor of the bathroom is soaking wet she calls out to
28:40Houston
28:44getting no response she makes her way towards the bathroom and finds Houston face down in the bath
29:05frantically she lists bodyguard ray Watson to help her together they succeed in pulling Houston out
29:15I need a paramedic at a 46 year old female found in the bathroom apparently she wasn't breathing she
29:20was not breathing yes okay but she is breathing out so I don't know paramedics from Beverly Hills fire
29:26department arrived to room 434 within minutes of the emergency cool with me Elizabeth Houston is
29:41pronounced dead at the scene at 3 55 p.m. singer Whitney Houston is dead again this is according to
29:49the
29:49Associated Press I was dressing and I was watching TV and then it flashed across the screen with Houston
29:55dead and it's one of those moments that but that you just you read the words and you can't believe
30:01it's really really true so we are just getting confirmation now and it is sad news and we're
30:06going to continue with this breaking news as long as we can here but the singer Whitney Houston 48 years
30:12old and really one of the greatest voices of all time has died with Houston's death shrouded in mystery
30:19in the hours that follow the unexplained circumstances are investigated by the LAPD so Houston's body
30:26remains in the room despite this Clive Davis his party goes ahead in the hotel ballroom downstairs
30:35the world now knows Whitney Houston is dead and a few notable guests stay away the majority of the 800
30:42invitees attend I've talked to many people at the party and her friends and associates and they
30:50also the same thing why are we here what is what should we do yeah people trying to have a
30:57party with
30:59Whitney's deceased body in the hotel no one really know what to say I mean some were embarrassed by being
31:06there others were simple you know the show must go on it was a very strange mixture of emotions ten
31:13hours after Houston's death the coroner finally removes her body from the hotel and takes it for
31:20examination in trying to determine the cause of death of someone that's found in the bathtub of
31:26course the first thing you would look for is water logging of the lungs and in Whitney's case that was
31:34present however it can be caused by so many things that on its own it can't tell us why Whitney
31:40Houston
31:41died so can the autopsy evidence actually determine drowning as the cause of Houston's death there are
31:49other features of the lungs that do pinpoint drowning as the cause of death and this is crepitation of the
31:56surface of the lung which is caused by water entering the air passages mixing with the mucus which then
32:04traps air in the periphery of the lung giving it a crackling texture this is significant because it
32:10shows that the individual was alive and breathing when their air passages were submerged under the water so
32:18why was she unable to save herself and what did happen in those few critical missing minutes
32:30having established that Houston had relapsed into addiction in the days before her death and that she
32:35was under the influence of a number of drugs that can cause drowsiness when she died Richard Shepherd
32:42turns his attention to the scene evidence to see whether anything found by investigators can shed
32:48light on what happened when Houston was alone in the bathroom and reveal what caused her to drown
32:56when I arrived and made entry into the hotel room it was found to be somewhat disarray there was furniture
33:04moved there was empty food plates there was a number of prescription bottles and packages of pills
33:12there was some empty bottles and beer cans and ashtrays filled with cigarettes carpet was wet
33:20it wasn't the neatest the discovery of open alcohol in room 434 pointed to a possible explanation the scene
33:29findings and the history of chronic alcohol abuse strongly suggested that Whitney Houston was likely to be
33:36under the influence of alcohol at the time of her death this led investigators to speculate that Houston may
33:43have overdosed on alcohol and prescription drugs and fallen asleep in the bath despite the findings at the
33:51scene the toxicology shows that there was no alcohol present in Whitney Houston's bloodstream at the time that she
33:57died so she wasn't drunk and alcohol hasn't played a part in her death the first clue to what actually
34:04happened
34:04comes from a seemingly insignificant detail in the witness reports Mary Jones stated that when she
34:11entered the room there was already water on the bathroom floor and yet the taps were turned off if
34:17Houston had fallen asleep in the bath that wouldn't explain how the water got there but her external injuries
34:24might the fact there's bruising to the knees and face suggests a fall into the bath and as the bruising
34:31is
34:31the result of the front of the body it suggests a fall forwards and this matches the position described by
34:37Mary Jones
34:38when she found her the most plausible explanation for the water on the floor then would seem to be displacement
34:44caused by the
34:45impact of Houston falling and pushing the water up and over the edge of the bar but a fall alone
34:52would not explain why she drowned
34:55Whitney Houston was five six inches in height so it's unlikely that she could fall into a bathtub without
35:01making contact with several surfaces on the way down in fact there is a mark on the left side of
35:06her
35:06forehead which indicates that she hit her head as she fell down if the blow to the head rendered Houston
35:14unconscious it would provide the answer so the next stage in the examination of this injury is to look beneath
35:19the
35:19surface and there was a small amount of bruising on the under surface of the scalp but not extending into
35:25the orbit or into the temporal muscles which showed this was a minor injury and very unlikely to have
35:31caused unconsciousness so this injury was not the reason why Whitney Houston was unable to save herself
35:39something else affected Houston when she was getting into the bath and the toxicology holds the key
35:45cocaine is metabolized very quickly within the body and the presence of cocaine and high levels of the
35:50metabolite within the bloodstream of Whitney Houston suggests that one of the last things she did was take
35:56some cocaine this evidence is backed up by the discovery of a small spoon with a white crystal-like
36:03substance in it alongside a rolled-up piece of paper on the bathroom counter
36:13Houston had once again succumbed to her biggest vice
36:22on top of the drowsiness caused by the prescription drugs the anesthetic properties of freebase cocaine
36:28would have had a disorienting effect the piece of evidence that helps us best to understand what
36:35what probably happened in that bathroom are some injuries that the autopsy report calls scald burns
36:45when the temperature of the bath water was measured six hours after Houston's death
36:49it was found to still be 93.5 degrees Fahrenheit at 3 p.m. when Houston got in it was
36:57far higher
37:06in trying to understand what happened when Whitney Houston got into the bath we have to understand
37:11that it was a very hot bar and that all her senses were dulled by the combination of drugs she
37:17had
37:18circulating within her bloodstream and her response to pain would have been very significantly reduced
37:25the response of her tissues in her legs would not have been reduced and the damage would have been the
37:31same
37:32there is a disconnect between what her brain is perceiving is happening due to the effects of
37:37all of the drugs dulling the senses and what the tissues of her leg are responding to which is the
37:43heat and the damage caused by that heat the legs cause shock the shock causes her blood pressure to
37:51plummet and she faints and falls into the bathtub this is a known effect called the syncope or the faint
38:01caused by shock from immersion of the legs in water causing lack of blood to the brain and it causes
38:08the
38:08individual to blackout with Houston's blood flow further constricted by the effects of the cocaine and
38:15the blocked artery in her heart her susceptibility to faint was dramatically increased these things
38:22combined together to mean that she is unconscious before she hits the water and that is the reason
38:28why she's unable to save herself so what then of the bruising and other marks on Houston's body
38:35that Richard Shepherd first identified it would be very difficult to get an adult woman out of a bath
38:42they would be a dead weight it's likely the efforts made to lift Whitney Houston out of the bathtub
38:47were the cause the bruises to the arms and shoulders of the other injuries that Whitney Houston had there
38:54were some areas of skin slippage skin deteriorates when it spends time in water the longer the time or
39:00the hotter the water the greater the effect upon the skin and if that skin is handled may be damaged
39:07and this is skin slippage these findings prove that the majority of Houston's external
39:12injuries took place after her death perhaps we can take comfort then from the fact that although
39:19Whitney Houston died drowning in a bath of very hot water which sounds like an awful way to die the
39:27evidence suggests that she wouldn't have suffered for more than a second or so just days after Houston's
39:38death her drug dealer showed no remorse I never thought it was my fault that's not nobody's gonna
39:46pass out in a fucking bathtub being spun out on cocaine they're gonna be fucking cleaned in the bathtub if
39:52anything you know I'll remember Whitney as a like a legendary icon music but at the same time I'll remember
40:04her as just another customer for some Houston's illustrious career will never be separated from the addictions that she was
40:12mired by but for her army of fans and the people she worked with her legacy is undiminished
40:19you know a lot of people who get what she got tend to be thinking it's all about them but
40:27Whitney Houston was profoundly humble and so spiritual I believe that Whitney has a very strong place in heaven I
40:36think she's probably conducting the choir up there and for someone of her superstar status she would always talk to
40:43fans she would always acknowledge
40:45people personally personally if there were a hundred hands reaching out to touch her she would do her best like
40:51a politician to shake everybody's hand and always say thank you to everybody she was wonderful
41:00tragically despite the dizzying heights Houston ascended in her career in her personal life she was never able to free
41:08herself from the dark undertow of addiction and in the end it destroyed her
41:17Whitney Houston
41:18Whitney Houston did die as a result of an accident but that accident was contributed to by her lifestyle her
41:23chronic cocaine abuse causing the damage to her heart muscles the cocktail of drugs that was present in her body
41:30at the time she got into that bath and without those perhaps she'd still be with us today
41:35honey
41:37for a moment
41:38honey
41:40honey
41:40honey
41:53honey
41:54honey
41:55honey
42:11Potatoes.
42:25Potatoes.
42:27Potatoes.
42:28Potatoes.
42:28Potatoes.
42:30Potatoes.
42:32Potatoes.
42:34Potatoes.
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