By late Sunday afternoon, neither police nor coroners officials had offered an update. But TMZ repor...

1. Family, fans mourn Whitney Houston with tears, prayers
By late Sunday afternoon, neither police nor coroners officials had offered an update. But TMZ
reported that the autopsy had been completed.
"We must lean on our faith. Our hearts are heavy today," Jackson said.
Credit: Reuters/Gary Hershorn/Files
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - From the New Jersey church where Whitney Houston's singing career
first took flight to the Beverly Hills hotel where her life abruptly ended, family and fans of the pop
diva expressed their grief on Sunday with prayer, tears and raw anguish.
CAUSE OF DEATH A MYSTERY
Houston's songs were already dominating Internet music sales early on Sunday. Her album "Whitney
Houston - The Greatest Hits" was the top seller in the music category on Amazon.com, and her
signature hit, "I Will Always Love You," was the No. 1 download at iTunes.
Over the course of a 30-year career in which she established herself as one of the most-admired and
influential singers of her time, Houston won six Grammys, 30 Billboard awards and 22 American
Music Awards.
1 of 16. Whitney Houston performs before winning for Best Female RB Vocal Performance at the
42nd annual Grammy Awards, in this file photo taken February 23, 2000.
In a separate statement issued through People magazine, Houston's former husband, RB singer
Bobby Brown, with whom she had shared a long struggle with substance abuse, said, "I am deeply
saddened at the passing of my ex-wife, Whitney Houston."
"The suddenness of it all leaves us traumatized," said Jackson, who watched Houston grow up and
sing at New Hope. It was in that red brick church on a quiet backstreet near downtown Newark
where Houston's career began as a soloist in a gospel choir in the 1970s.
Brown, who was reported by celebrity news website TMZ.com to have been enraged at authorities at
not being allowed into the hotel room where her mother's body was found, was treated at the
hospital for stress and released, a source close to the family told Reuters. A hospital spokeswoman
declined comment.
Houston, whose soaring voice lifted her to the top of the pop music world, but whose personal
decline was fueled by years of drug abuse, died on Saturday afternoon in a fourth-floor room at the
Beverly Hilton Hotel. She was 48.
Houston's family expressed their grief in a brief statement issued on Sunday.

2. The Times said Houston, disheveled, sweaty and
smelling of alcohol, was behaving erratically when she
stopped by the Hilton two days earlier, accompanied by
her daughter, for rehearsals. She was seen flailing her
hands frenetically, skipping around the ballroom and
wandering aimlessless through the lobby, the
newspaper said in its online editions.
LOS ANGELES Sun Feb 12, 2012 6:42pm EST
EX-HUSBAND 'DEEPLY SADDENED'
The soundtrack for the hit movie in which she starred, "The Bodyguard," was among the best-selling
film soundtracks ever.
By Steve Gorman and R.T. Watson
A fire department spokeswoman declined to disclose any information about the daughter's medical
condition but said she was "awake and talking" at the time she was transported.
Coroners removed Houston's body from the Beverly Hilton after midnight through a back door to
avoid the crush of media set up to cover her death.
(Additional reporting by R.T. Watson, Mary Slosson, Jill Serjeant, Dan Whitcomb and Piya Sinha-
Roy.; Editing by Steve Gorman, Dan Burns and Stacey Joyce)
Up to 200 people attended the Newark church's services, where Denise Dean, 57, recalled once
hearing Houston sing. Dean said she still has her faded autograph on an old checkbook.
By the early 1990s, Houston's success on stage was accompanied by an increasingly troubled
personal life. In 1992 she married singer Bobby Brown and their tumultuous 14 years together were
marred by drug abuse and domestic violence.
At the New Hope Baptist Church in Newark, New Jersey, Houston's hometown, fans and admirers
gathered to celebrate her life during three Sunday services, portions of which were devoted to the
singer and her family.
"Many of us were rooting and pulling for her because she has been a blessing to this generation with
talent, with a special anointed voice," Pastor John Hunter told parishioners. "We will miss her. This
world will miss her."
Houston's death was expected to be a central focus of Sunday night's Grammys, and Jennifer Hudson
was scheduled to sing a tribute during the program.
"We prayed for the family," Dean said afterward.
Brown, who is Bobbi Kristina's father, was described by an unnamed relative as "beside himself"
with grief, according to the magazine.

3. Cards and flowers were tied to the railings of the church, where congregants hugged and cried at
the entrance. Among those paying their respects was the Reverend Jesse Jackson, the civil rights
activist.
The Los Angeles Times, citing an unnamed source briefed on the case, reported that investigators
were trying to discern whether she might have drowned in a bathtub shortly before she was set to
attend the pre-Grammy gala.
Typically, coroners conduct an autopsy within a day or two, at which point they might release some
preliminary information about the death. If drugs or alcohol are involved, however, an official cause
of death would not be released until after toxicology tests, which could take six to eight weeks.
Police and the Los Angeles County Coroner's Office were continuing their investigation to determine
a cause of death, which came on the eve of the Grammy Awards at the same hotel where Houston's
mentor, record mogul Clive Davis, was holding an annual pre-event party.
Police said there was no immediate sign of foul play.
Houston's only child, daughter Bobbi Kristina Brown, 18, was taken by paramedics from the hotel to
nearby Cedars-Sinai Medical Center on Sunday suffering from anxiety, Beverly Hills police and fire
officials said.
On the West Coast, the First AME Church of Los Angeles, the city's oldest African-American
congregation, held a special moment of silence in Houston's memory.
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"We are devastated by the loss of our
beloved Whitney. This is an unimaginable
tragedy and we will miss her terribly," it said. "We appreciate the outpouring of love and support
from her fans and friends."

4. The last 10 years of Houston's life were
dominated by drug use, rumors of relapses
and trips to rehab.