Whitney Houston was standing outside her hotel bathtub when something caused her to crash facedown into the scalding water, a famed forensic pathologist concluded Thursday.
The blazing bath was too hot for soaking, and injuries on Houston's forehead, chest and upper lip suggest trauma from a fall, former Pittsburgh coroner Dr. Cyril Wecht told the Daily News.
“Put everything together, and you have somebody who had to be unconscious falling into the water,” Wecht said. “She falls in and strikes those places and then presses against them as her body is down.”
Houston's final autopsy report, released Wednesday, revealed the 13-inches of tub water measured 93.5 degrees several hours after the superstar singer died on Feb. 11
“The water was a heck of a lot hotter when she fell in. It would have been painful, and she wasn’t able to get out or cry for help,” Wecht said.
Houston’s official cause of death was accidental drowning due to the “effects” of heart disease and cocaine use, the report confirmed.
A coroner official earlier said Houston likely suffered a cocaine-induced “cardiac event” that led to her unconscious state.
The six-time Grammy winner also had marijuana, the anti-anxiety drug Xanax, the muscle relaxant Flexeril and the over-the-counter antihistamine Benadryl in her bloodstream, but the report called them inconsequential.
Wecht, now a private consultant who conducted second autopsies on Laci Peterson and Anna Nicole Smith’s son, discounted the marijuana but not the other three.
“You put those together, and you’ve got three drugs acting in concert. They could produce a degree of mental obtundation,” he said, referring to a semi-conscious state.
He agreed the death was accidental but doubted Houston had a full-blown heart attack.
“The cocaine is not to be ignored. And a heart spasm isn’t something you can see at autopsy because it relaxes after death. But she was a veteran cocaine user. And it was not a huge amount,” he said.
Houston had a small bruise on her forehead and a tiny cut on her upper lip described as injuries “inflicted” shortly before she died, the report said.
She also had “yellow-brown marks” on her clavicle, her left upper chest and her left breast from trauma at or near her time of the death, officials said.
