Whitney Houston's body ready to be released to family

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Whitney Houston's body can be released to her family, officials said on Monday, following an autopsy that has been sealed by officials until further tests determine the cause of her death that is shrouded in mystery.

Houston, 48, a pop singer who battled drug addiction during her life, was found dead in the bathtub of her Beverly Hills hotel room on Saturday on the eve of music's Grammy Awards, shocking family and fans, and prompting questions about what might have caused the death of the wealthy superstar.

Some reports, citing unnamed sources close to Beverly Hills police and Los Angeles County coroners, have cited a possible accidental drowning and others have highlighted her past drug use, but officials have declined to provide much detail pending toxicology tests that could take six to eight weeks to complete.

Funeral and memorial services have yet to be announced, and her family's representatives were not immediately available to comment.

Houston's brother-in-law, Billy Watson, on Monday vehemently denied to ABCNews.com that the singer had had any intention of committing suicide.

'Oh, no, this is accidental,' Billy told ABCNews.comted in Los Angeles in November 2010 and has main. 'She wouldn't have left her daughter like thats allege that Beresford-Redman dumped his . She wouldn't have done that to her daughter,' he said, referring to 18-year-old Bobby Kristina, who is said to be distraught over her mother's death.

Watson, whose sister is married to Houston's brother, Gary, said the family is flying back to New Jersey from California today and Tuesday, but there was no word on funeral plans.

'There is no reason it (the body) couldn't be released to the family today,' Los Angeles coroner's spokesman Lieutenant Joe Bale told reporters on Monday.

Ed Winter, the assistant chief coroner for Los Angeles County, declined comment on media reports that Houston had not drowned, but likely died from a combination of alcohol and prescription drugs including anti-anxiety medications.

'You can look at a body and not know what the cause of death is,' Winter told reporters50_5'reality TV/span show 'span class='ys. 'You might have a suspicion, but the person could have suffered a heart attack, or an embolism or something; and no matter what medications they're taking, until we run (toxicological tests) and see the level, and what's in the system, we're not going to speculate.'

Houston, 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.

She had been preparing to appear at a pre-Grammy party in Beverly Hills on the night she died.

Celebrity website TMZ said on Monday that Houston's mother, singer Cissy Houston, had arranged to have her daughter's body flown to Atlanta, Georgia, as early as Tuesday was a co-creator of the MTV sh. Houston lived just outside Atlanta for several years with her husband of 14 years, singer Bobby Brown.

But NBC, quoting sources working with the family, said she was expected to be flown to New Jersey as early as Monday eveningspan class='yshortcuts' id. Houston was born in Newark and got her start as a gospel singer in the New Hope Baptist Church.

(Reporting By Jill Serjeant; Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)



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