Whitney Houston Found in Bathtub, Water in Lungs

A coroner's assistant confirms that Whitney Houston was in fact found dead in a hotel room bathtub, People reports. Houston's autopsy also found water in the singer's lungs, TMZ reports, but the medical examiner has not yet determined whether she died by drowning or was dead before she went under. But reports out this morning say that LA County coroner officials told Houston's family that the cause of her death was not drowning, due to the insufficient amount of water found in her lungs. They attributed her death to an apparent combination of Xanax, booze, and other prescription drugs—or so family sources tell TMZ. Toxicology results will take another four to six weeks.

The Sun, meanwhile, reports that Houston went on a "two-night booze binge" before her death, and claims that she was found with her face underwater in the tub and her legs in the air. The paper also claims half a dozen bottles of prescription drugs were found in the room, including Lorazepam, Valium, and Xanax; it compares them to the drugs taken by Michael Jackson and notes that they can act as sedatives if mixed with liquor. Houston was also reportedly seen wandering, with wet hair and mismatched clothes, around the hotel lobby and doing handstands by the pool in the days before her death. Click for more, including Grammy Awards tributes to Houston. (More Whitney Houston stories.)