Whitney Houston's body transported to NJ

PanARMENIAN.Net - Whitney Houston's body has been flown from California to her home state of New Jersey, ahead of a funeral expected later this week, BBC reports.

A gold hearse took her body from Teterboro airport to a funeral home in her hometown of Newark.

The 48-year-old singer was found underwater and unconscious on Saturday, Feb 11, in a bath at a hotel in Beverly Hills, police said. Toxicology tests are under way after an autopsy on Sunday.

The authorities say it may be up to eight weeks before they can confirm the cause of death.

No criminal probe is under way, police said, but LA's coroner said her room did contain some prescription drugs.

In a news conference on Monday, Beverly Hills police spokesman Lt Mark Rosen said fire department officials were told the singer was found unresponsive on Saturday morning.

"Ms Houston was pulled from the tub by members of her staff and hotel security was promptly notified," he said.

The police spokesman played down reports that prescription drugs might have been involved in her death.

"Our intent at Beverly Hills Police Department is not to fuel the speculation or rumours that are circulating right now," Lt Rosen said. "We can't comment on where those rumours have come from."

However, the Los Angeles coroner's office then said there were bottles of prescription medicine in the room, although it did not provide further details.

"There weren't a lot of prescription bottles," said Ed Winter, the coroner's assistant chief. "You probably have just as many prescription bottles in your medicine cabinet."

Houston's body was released to her family late on Monday morning. The body was then flown from Van Nuys Airport in the Los Angeles area east to New Jersey.