A Georgia judge has ordered the release of Bobbi Kristina Brown’s autopsy. Brown, the daughter of singers Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown, died last year after she was found unconscious in a bathtub. Bobbi Kristina, 22, slipped into a coma and never recovered.
According to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Fulton County Superior Judge Henry Newkirk decided to unseal the autopsy results based on motions filed by lawyers representing media organizations.
According to Reuters, Bobbi Kristina died from drug intoxication and being immersed in water.
“Death was clearly not due to natural causes, but the medical examiner has not been able to determine whether death was due to intentional or accidental causes, and has therefore classified the manner of death as undetermined,” said the Fulton County medical examiner in a statement.
The autopsy also found several drugs in her system such as marijuana, benzoylecgonine (a cocaine-related substance), morphine and benzodiazepines (anti-anxiety drugs).
Newkirk told Reuters he released the records on the request of local television station WXIA.
However not everyone was happy that the information was made public. Prosecutors argued against releasing the autopsy, saying it might jeopardize an ongoing criminal investigation.
“It is our feeling that those valid reasons still exist,” said Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard Jr. in a statement.
“It contains information that is not privy to everyone,” said state attorney Paige Whitaker. “Right now there is information in that that might be only privy to people investigating this case and to the perpetrators. It is not in the public interest of public safety, of crime-solving of the confidentiality of investigations.”
Bobbi Kristina, an aspiring singer, died under suspicious circumstances. She was allegedly in an abusive relationship with her boyfriend Nick Gordon. (Gordon grew up alongside Bobbi Kristina, but was never legally adopted by her mother Whitney Houston.) WXIA has linked Bobbi Kristina’s death to three other heroin-related deaths in the affluent suburbs of northern Atlanta. The Huffington Post reported that last August, the conservator of Bobbi Kristina’s estate filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Gordon. Brown family lawyers accused Gordon of injecting Bobbi Kristina “with a toxic mixture,” according to People.
Houston, Bobbi Kristina’s mother, also died in similar circumstances. She drowned in the bathtub of a Beverly Hills hotel in 2012 at the age of 48. The authorities said drug use and heart disease contributed to her death. Bobby Brown, Bobbi Kristina’s father, recently celebrated the birth of his seventh child. A few days later he checked into a drug and alcohol rehab program. Houston and Bobby Brown divorced in 2007 amid allegations of domestic abuse and drug abuse.
Bobbi Kristina was Houston’s only child and heir to her $20 million fortune. Relatives of Houston and Bobby Brown are currently engaged in a legal battle over who gets to control Bobbi Kristina’s estate. According to NJ.com, Gordon could have a claim on her estate, but since he might have been at fault in her death and was never legally married to her, he doesn’t have a strong case.
