Cause of Whitney Houston’s Death May Not Be Known for Weeks

Ms. Houston’s physique was private from a hotel in Beverly Hills early Sunday and was taken downtown to a morgue. The autopsy was finished on Sunday, though a Los Angeles County coroner’s bureau conspicuous a central means of genocide would wait toxicology tests to establish either there was ethanol or drugs in Ms. Houston’s system. Those tests could take several weeks to complete.

Investigators conspicuous that Ms. Houston was found in a bathtub — suggesting that she competence have drowned — though that no justification of tainted play was discovered.

By early Sunday, a military and media participation that had swarmed a area in Beverly Hills had all though disappeared, as courtesy changed from a Wilshire Boulevard hotel, that hosted a pre-Grammy jubilee on Saturday that Ms. Houston was ostensible to have attended. The fourth-floor dilemma apartment where Ms. Houston died — Room 434 — had been sealed and rhythmical by hotel confidence to keep onlookers away.

Ms. Houston’s family expelled a matter anguish her loss, as expressions of grief were listened opposite a nation — from a Twitter postings of fans and celebrities, to church services, to a streets of Atlanta, where she had lived. “We are ravaged by a detriment of a dear Whitney,” a family said. “This is an unthinkable tragedy, and we will skip her terribly. We conclude a escape of adore and support from her fans and friends.”

The singer, who was 48, had a prolonged story of ethanol and drug abuse, and in a dual days heading adult to her genocide she was seen working erratically and seemed rumpled and disoriented, including when she left a Hollywood nightclub on Thursday night after a pre-Grammy jubilee where she sang, hoarsely and haltingly, “Jesus Loves Me” with Kelly Price. She detonate onto a set during a televised talk with Clive Davis, a record attention titan and her mentor, appearing changeable and giddy.

The genocide of Ms. Houston came during a time when she was seeking to revitalise a career that had been ravaged by her troubles with drugs and alcohol, many a approach Michael Jackson had been trying, with a array of shows designed in London, when he died during his home here from an overdose of a absolute anesthetic.

People with believe of Ms. Houston’s career conspicuous on Sunday that she had been perplexing to get her voice behind to do another quip album; her voice was in bad figure — as was clear again from cellphone videos of her unpretentious coming during Tru Hollywood Nightclub — and she knew it. She was one of a executive producers of “Sparkle,” a reconstitute of a 1976 film in that she will appear, that is due to be expelled in August.

Ms. Houston died on Saturday afternoon, on a eve of a Grammy Awards. Emergency workers were sent to a Beverly Hilton in response to a 911 call that came in during 3:43 p.m. Efforts to cure her were catastrophic and she was conspicuous passed during 3:55 p.m., according to Lt. Mark Rosen of a Beverly Hills Police Department. Ms. Houston’s daughter, Bobbi Kristina, who is 18, was taken to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center on Sunday morning, according to a orator for a Beverly Hills Fire Department, apparently angry of stress.

Bobby Brown, Ms. Houston’s ex-husband and Bobbi Kristina’s father, appealed for privacy.

“I am deeply saddened during a flitting of my ex-wife, Whitney Houston,” Mr. Brown said. “At this time, we ask for privacy, generally for my daughter, Bobbi Kristina. we conclude all of a condolences that have been destined towards my family and I, during this many formidable time.”

In Newark, during a New Hope Baptist Church, where Ms. Houston sang as a child, mourners left upraise cards and placed candles, flowers and a rosary in tribute.

“This is where she grew up, this is where she initial sang,” conspicuous Helena Hollinshed, 50, of Newark, who conspicuous she knew Ms. Houston as a child. “A lot of people in a village are devastated.”

Inside a red-brick church building — where some church members remembered Ms. Houston by her childhood nickname, Nippy — many in a assemblage wore black. Another mourner, Teresa Fears, 26, of Newark, conspicuous she was saddened because, like many in a internal village and around a world, she was feeling “really harm since Whitney Houston is an icon.”

Ms. Fears conspicuous she had attended New Hope as a child though had not returned until Sunday.

“I only came to pointer a label and only give my respects,” she said. “It’s due.”

Reporting was contributed by Ben Sisario from Los Angeles, Jennifer Medina and Ian Lovett from Beverly Hills, Calif., and Channing Joseph from Newark.