Coroners will perform an autopsy on the body of Whitney Houston’s daughter Bobbi Kristina Brown as required in “known or suspected non-natural deaths,” they said Monday.
The 22-year-old, the only child of pop legend Houston and singer Bobby Brown, died Sunday aged 22, six months after being found unconscious in a bathtub in her home in an eerie repeat of her mother’s death in 2012.
“Despite the long interval between her being found unresponsive and her death, an autopsy will still be necessary to further evaluate possible causes of death or contributing factors,” said the Fulton County coroner’s office.
“The time which has elapsed between the initial event on January 31st and her resulting death will complicate reconstruction of the events surrounding her initial unresponsiveness,” it added.
The death had been reported to the Fulton County Medical Examiners’ Office in Georgia “in accordance with state death investigation laws requiring investigation of known or suspected non-natural deaths,” it added.
Bobbi Kristina — sole heir to Houston’s estate — was discovered face down and unresponsive in her bathtub in her Atlanta, Georgia home on January 31.
She was revived by emergency crews but lost significant brain function and was placed in a medically induced coma. She died at a hospice in Duluth, Georgia.
She passed away, according to the TMZ celebrity website, after her family decided to “take her off all meds.”
In February, US media reported that police had opened a criminal probe into Bobbi Kristina’s boyfriend Nick Gordon, who reportedly said it was he who found her in the bathtub.
The reports said that Bobbi Kristina sustained unexplained injuries prior to the incident, and there are also claims of a drug overdose. No criminal charges have been brought, however.
Her death drew parallels to that of her mother, who was found face down in a bathtub in a Los Angeles hotel on February 11, 2012, on the eve of the Grammy Awards.
Bobbi Kristina’s parents separated in 2006 and divorced in 2007, with Houston awarded custody of their daughter, amid claims of abuse and drug use in the high-profile relationship.