Coroner seeking Whitney Houston's medical records

Authorities said an autopsy found no indications of foul play or obvious signs of trauma on Houston. Photo / AP

The Los Angeles County coroner's office has issued subpoenas for medical and pharmacy records from Whitney Houston's doctors and medical providers, which is standard procedure in such investigations, an official says.

Assistant Chief Coroner Ed Winter said the request is made in virtually all death investigations because it can shed additional light on how people died and whether they had any serious medical conditions.

"We've already contacted a number of doctors with requests for records," he said.

Winter said that at this point, there is nothing unusual about how his office is proceeding with the Houston death investigation and that requests for medical records are requested through subpoenas.

"If somebody even dies in a crash, a blunt force trauma, we will still take medical issues into account," he said.

"Anything helps."

Investigators found several bottles of prescription medication in the Beverly Hills, California hotel room where Houston died on Saturday, local time, although Winter has said they weren't an unusually large number. Detectives have declined to disclose which medications were seized.

Authorities said an autopsy found no indications of foul play or obvious signs of trauma on Houston. She was underwater and apparently unconscious when she was pulled from a bathtub, officials said.

It could be weeks before the coroner's office completes toxicology tests to establish the cause of death.

Houston died just hours before she was scheduled to perform at producer Clive Davis' pre-Grammy Awards bash. Her family plans a private church service in her hometown of Newark, New Jersey.

Houston, a sensation from her first, eponymous album in 1985, was one of the world's best-selling artists from the mid-1980s to the late 1990s, turning out such hits as I Wanna Dance With Somebody, How Will I Know, The Greatest Love of All and I Will Always Love You. But as she struggled with drugs, her majestic voice became raspy, and she couldn't hit the high notes.

- AAP