The body of pop singer Whitney Houston was flown out of a Los Angeles airport on Monday, reportedly heading home to New Jersey for funeral services, police said on Monday, after new details surfaced about the circumstances surrounding her sudden death.
Earlier in the day, Beverly Hills Police told reporters Houston’s body had been found underwater in a bathtub in the Beverly Hills hotel room in which she died on Saturday, but they declined to speculate on the cause of her death at age 48.
“Ms. Houston was apparently discovered in the bathtub by a member of her personal staff,” who called hotel security, Beverly Hills Police Lieutenant Mark Rosen said.
“Ms. Houston’s body was pulled from the bathtub and when first responders arrived she was unconscious and unresponsive.”
Rosen said first responders were told by members of the entertainer’s entourage that Houston had been underwater when she was discovered at about 3:30 p.m. She did not regain consciousness and was pronounced dead about 25 minutes later.
Houston’s death on the eve of the Grammy Awards stunned family, friends and fans. Some media reports, citing unnamed sources, have suggested possible accidental drowning. Others have highlighted her past drug and alcohol use.
The singer, best known for her hit single “I Will Always Love You,” the theme song of “The Bodyguard” film in which she starred, had a long history of addiction to alcohol, cocaine and marijuana and had been in rehab as recently as May 2011.
Police said on Monday afternoon that a plane carrying Houston’s body had taken off from a Los Angeles airport.
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