Still, though cocaine was cited as a contributing factor to her death by drowning, Brown rejected the notion that drugs killed her.
“She was really working hard on herself to try to be a sober person,” he told Rolling Stone in 2018. Asked what he thought did hasten her death, the New Edition singer replied, “Just being brokenhearted.”
Scheduled to attend longtime friend Davis’ party on Feb. 11, 2012, Houston was instead found face-down in the tub in her suite at the hotel at around 3:35 p.m.
The L.A. County coroner’s office later noted in its postmortem findings that a “white crystal like substance” was found in the room, along with an open bottle of champagne, food and other personal items.
An autopsy determined the official cause of death to be accidental drowning, with atherosclerotic heart disease and cocaine use “just probably immediately prior” to drowning listed as contributing factors. Toxicology screens turned up traces of Benadryl, Xanax, traces of marijuana and Flexeril, a muscle relaxant, in her system.