Anna Nicole Smith, The Investigation

Ahhhh, Dubai. Now just try and track down the assets...

They didn't interview Brigitte??

And about the atropin(sp) proving that she was not dead that long because it was in her blood - showing that it had been pumped around - wouldn't the CPR have done this?

BINGO!

So they waited an hour and ten minutes to call paramedics.. and the Seminole Chief Tiger doesn't find this suspicious? and... it seems Chief Tiger and Perper don't watch TV or they would know it was Brigitte who was the first to notice something was wrong and informed Tas..... we almost know more than it seems they do from all the investigation on this thread.

I agree. Someone had to be giving or injecting the drugs. And they say all the drugs were not even prescribed for Anna Nicole. The fact that no one in that hotel room got her med help is criminal. They should all have to answer. The doc knew that you can' mix all that stuff and have a good outcome. Looks like she was not tended to as a sick person from what was found on the night stand. I mean she should of been eating soups and jello and drinking juices...I know alot of people think she let a bad life, but she was a living breathing human. She did not deserve to die like this.

My ignorant redneck husband wouldn't have let me go refusing to go to the hospital if he found me sitting naked and confused in a dry bathtub for GOD'S SAKE!! Much less THREE MEDICAL PERSONEL

HA! Let me rephrase: My MEDICALLY ignorant redneck husband... jeez, that sounded worse when I read it then when I typed it.

I'm trying to open the pdf file..it's causing my puter to lock up. I will keep trying.

I know alot of people think she let a bad life, but she was a living breathing human. She did not deserve to die like this.

Amen and AMEN!

Yes, I was wondering if he was aware of being an "ignorant redneck"!

"I know alot of people think she let a bad life, but she was a living breathing human. She did not deserve to die like this."

I agree with you totally.

Yes, I was wondering if he was aware of being an "ignorant redneck"!

Most days he could care less, hehe.

DR. JOSHUA PERPER, BROWARD COUNTY MEDICAL EXAMINER: Good morning. My name is Joshua Perper and I am the chief medical examiner for Broward County.

Now, I have with me today Chief Charlie Tiger, the chief of the Seminole Police Department. And also with me Dr. Steven Sena (ph), who is the deputy chief medical examiner, Dr. (INAUDIBLE), with whom I did the autopsy. And Dr. Harold Shultz (ph), our chief toxicologist.

I want to thank the chief for his close cooperation, the access which he gave to his records of the investigation, and the fact that he permitted us to review the two laptop computers, which belonged to Anna Nicole Smith -- chief.

CHIEF CHARLIE TIGER, SEMINOLE POLICE: Thank you, Dr. Perper. Good morning.

This has been a long, long investigation. And we've come to a conclusion finally. As you know my name is Charlie Tiger, chief police for the Seminole Police Department. It's been a little more than six weeks since the death of Anna Nicole Smith. During that time detectives of the Seminole Police Department conducted a thorough investigation into her unexplained death. Our detectives interviewed numerous individuals involved in the case, and we found them to be cooperative. The Broward Sheriff's Crime Scene Unit completed a thorough investigation of the case of the death of this -- of the scene of the death and found no evidence of ill legal drugs. We have reviewed hundreds of hours of video, tape captured by the hotel security cameras, and we found nothing unusual.

We analyzed the contents of the laptop computer belonging to Mr. Stern with the approval of his attorney, and we found nothing to indicate any foul play. We are convinced a based on extensive review of the evidence that this case is an accidental overdose with no other criminal element present. The investigation has been carried out with the full cooperation and participation of the office of the Broward County state attorney. We have worked closely with the Royal Bahamian police force. We have been in close cooperation with the Broward medical examiner, Dr. Joshua Perper, who I want to thank for his ongoing commitment and professionalism. Today's release by Dr. Perper of the cause of death closes the case on the death of Anna Nicole Smith.

Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are there any questions?

QUESTION: Yes. You said it was an accidental overdose, but that would be prescription medication as opposed to...

TIGER: Dr. Perper is going to tell you that information in his release. Thank you.

Pardon me?

QUESTION: ... that was found in the room you were looking at in this investigation? What type of evidence did you use in determining...

TIGER: Any evidence at all related to the case, we collected. Bob Kransey (ph) collected that.

QUESTION: Bottom line, does this mean Howard Stern will not be charged with murder or any crime at all?

TIGER: At this point, yes.

QUESTION: Can you tell us what you were looking for on Howard K. Stern's laptop computer?

TIGER: Anything that might help us determine the cause of death.

QUESTION: Chief...

TIGER: I can't hear you, sir.

QUESTION: The results were going to be announced a couple of weeks ago. But Dr. Ferber (ph) delayed it. It was because of new evidence that you presented him. What was that evidence? And why did it affect...

TIGER: It was two computers that we had in our possession.

QUESTION: Chief, you looked into who prescribed these medications? Is there anything pending regarding...

TIGER: I think Dr. Perper has that information. I'll take two more questions. Go ahead, sir.

QUESTION: Is there anything on that computer related to this case? I know you said there was nothing suggesting criminal activity. Was there anything on the computers related to the case at all?

TIGER: Dr. Perper looked at that the computer, and he'll have that information for you, I think.

QUESTION: There was no probable cause but one thing the computer -- how were you able to get inside?

TIGER: We got permission from his attorney.

Thank you very much.

PERPER: Thank you very much, chief. I would also like to thank Sheriff Ken Jenning (ph), the Broward County sheriff and his officer, for helping us in this case and basically watching our office 24 hours a day for more than a month, and helping us in many other ways, and we are truly very grateful for this full cooperation. I would like to mention that medical examiners are not soulless. That we are like today under the glare of television camera. We are working with a team, and the forensic team is what determines ultimately the quality of the work of the medical examiner. And Broward County is very fortunate to have in the medical examiner's office a number of such excellent teams, and I would be remiss if I wouldn't mention the people who are and work in this investigation team of Anna Nicole Smith and those are the three doctors which I already mentioned, Dr. Sena (ph), Dr. Vist (ph) and Dr. Shuler (ph).

And in addition to that, Dr. Reinhart Morty (ph), who is an associate medical examiner, Mr. Winnard Johnson (ph), which is the chief medical investigator, Wendy Crane (ph), a medical investigator. And now we're out of (INAUDIBLE), the chief autopsy technician, Irman Moten (ph), an autopsy technician, Joe Anderson and Jim Claremont (ph), who are imaging technicians. And certainly the help and the assistance of my invaluable secretary Ms. Sherry Baker (ph).

I would also like to thank the Miami-Dade police department for their computer services section, because without their help we wouldn't have been able to access the laptops and the information which was there, and this was information which now, coming late, was very helpful to our investigation. In addition to that, we've had six outside forensic experts who freely volunteered their services to Broward County, and their contribution was very important, and they were Dr. Steven Nelson, who is a forensic neuropathologist, and the chief medical examiner of Kohl (ph) county, Dr. Michael Bell, who is a forensic cardiologist, and the chief medical examiner of Palm Beach county, Dr. Alzarides Morales (ph), who's the cardiopathologist, and the chairman and professor of pathology in the department of pathology at the University of Miami, Dr. Gordon Dickinson (ph), who is a professor, and the chairman of the Division of the Infectious Diseases at the University of Miami, Dr. Mark Gorison (ph) who is the chairman of the infectious diseases at the Florida branch of Cleveland Clinic, and Dr. Michael Bail (ph), who is an assistant professor of anatomic pathology at the Milton Hershey (ph) Medical Center College of Medicine.

I also want to make sure that you understand that we fully are aware of the loss which family experience when their loved one die and are under the jurisdiction of the medical examiner. And we take a great deal of care in treating the individual who unfortunately dies and are under our jurisdiction as patient, and they receive all the respect which every patient everywhere fully deserves. And we recognize that, like anybody else, they have a general right to privacy because nobody would like to have some aspect of his life exposed to the public.

However, unfortunately people who die and are under the jurisdiction of the medical examiner lose most of their privacy right with the exception of their medical record information and the photographs which we take at the time of the autopsy. And we are fully aware that in disclosing such public information we may cause some aggravation and discomfort to the family.

We are very sorry for that, and for that reason we apologize in advance of the family and friends of Anna Nicole Smith for release of such public information, but this is the law, and we have a clear duty of disclosing fully and truthfully all the public information which is in our possession.

Now, as you know, in the afternoon of Thursday, February the 8th, at about 2:29 in the afternoon, Anna Nicole Smith, a 39-year-old woman, was found dead at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, and she was pronounced dead sometime later in the afternoon at the Hollywood Memorial Regional Hospital.

Our information at the time when we did the autopsy was rather sketchy, and we just knew that she arrived three days prior to that in Ft. Lauderdale from the Bahamas and had suffered just from a stomach flu. And we assumed jurisdiction, as I mentioned previously, because this was the death which was unclear, and we did not have really an explanation for it.

And the next day an autopsy was performed by Dr. Gerfrigis (ph) and myself and lasted about six hours. And as I told you before, at the end of the autopsy we really didn't have any really cause of death, except for some minor findings. And during the autopsy we took a large number of tests, for microscopic examination, bacteriological culture, and viral culture, and psychological culture, and most important toxicological, or chemical, analysis.

The microscopic examination of the autopsy finding revealed no evidence of disease which could have explained the death. And at that time, our initial determination was that most likely the death was due to some medication or drug toxicity.

However, we were waiting for the initial information to come in. We -- following that we reviewed numerous medical records, examined many bottles of prescribed medication, interviewed many individuals, including companions of her, treating physicians and other witnesses. And following the witnesses' interviews, we obtained the following background information. I also want to make very clear that the information which I am going to relay to you is not information which comes from the medical records or from privileged sources, because it would be illegal for me to disclose such information. So the information comes solely from the findings of our investigation, from review of the findings which were determined, and from sources which were not privileged.

Now, as the background of information, we knew that Ms. Smith suffered of back and abdominal pain, and she was on a variety of pain medication, including methadone. In addition to that, she was taking a number of anti-anxiety, antidepressant drugs, and a number of drugs, which could be qualified as longevity drugs, or drugs which are sometimes used for weight-reducing purposes, such as human-growth hormone, vitamin B-12, immunoglobulin, the latter by injection in the buttocks and the thigh.

We know that after the death in 1996 of her husband, Howard Marshall, she experienced bouts of depression and had been admitted to Betty Ford Clinic, and unfortunately three days after she delivered a daughter in September 2006, her beloved son Daniel died. And following that she developed severe depression, which gradually decreased over time, and was treated with antidepressant and anti- anxiety drugs.

Ms. Smith was also under the stress of a number of lawsuits. And we were able to reconstruct the following timetable of events preceding the death of Ms. Smith. Before the trip to the United States, during the prior three days, she felt very well, didn't have any kind of evidence of depression. Her appetite was excellent. And her medication included at that time methadone for pain and growth hormone. And also she was on the so-called longevity medication, which I mentioned. And also prior to trip she had injected into her left buttock either growth hormone, vitamin B-12, or immunoglobulin. Those are all so-called longevity drugs.

On the morning of Monday, February 5, 2007, on the day of her air flight to the United States, she felt very good. At 10:00 a.m. she had a dance lesson for a video -- a musical video, which she intended to produce, and also she tried to have a dance lesson, because she intended to participate in some celebration, which was supposed to be occurring in the next day of Trimspa, which was the company for which she was the spokeswoman.

In the early afternoon, she flew to United States in the company of Howard K. Stern, her partner, and Dr. Christine Jurosevic, her psychiatrist friend. During the flight she was very happy and outstanding general spirits, with the exception of the fact that she complained that she had a pain in her buttocks, and she intended to see a doctor. And when arriving in the limo, after arriving to Ft. Lauderdale, she complained of similar pain, but in addition to that she felt very cold, she had chills. And when she arrived to the hotel at about 7:30 p.m., it was found that her temperature was extremely high, was 105-degrees Fahrenheit. She was asked by her friends to go to an emergency room, to a hospital, call 911, and she firmly refused.

So then the psychiatrist friend prescribed and gave her Tamiflu, a medication for flu, an antibiotic, which is called neosporin, antibacterial activity, Cipro, or ciproflaxin, plenty of fluid, and she was placed in an ice tub, and her temperature after that dropped to about 97 degrees. So she felt better. She was given chlorohydrate, which is a sleeping medication, went to sleep until the next morning.

Now, I'm not going to go through the detailed timeline of the next day. You'll find out that in the additional material which is submitted to you.

However, her temperature never went again above 100. And except for some occasionally -- an episode of vomiting she felt relatively well, except for feeling very weak. And basically watched TV during those days.

The next day, Tuesday, was a more difficult day, because she couldn't eat anything, and she had only fluids. But on Wednesday she already felt well enough that she had both breakfast and dinner. And again watched TV and before going to sleep took, again, this chlorohydrate medication.

Now, in the next day, on the last day of her life, which was Thursday, February the 8th, her companion, Mr. Stern, related to us that she woke up in the morning about 10:00 in the morning.

At that time Anna Nicole Smith was awake. She didn't complain of any kind of particular pain, but said that she was very weak, and she asked for his help to the bathroom, which he did. And on the way back she went back to bed and to sleep. Mr. Stern related that he took a shower and left, and saw something in the interim, but basically never checked on her again. And she was still watched by the wife of a gentleman, who was a friend, and also firefighter, and a bodybuilder and a bodyguard, until about 1:30 p.m. And at 1:30 p.m. they found out that she was not responsive, and basically she was dead.

Let me just mention that one of the points which was raised in prior discussion was how long it took before she was taken to the hospital. And there was some question that there was no delay. And I must say that at this time we can confirm that there was not a delay, because our toxicology revealed in her blood and medication, which is called atropine, and atropine is a medication which is very often even in resuscitation procedures. If she would have been dead for a long time, there would have been no way for us to find the atropine in the blood. It meant that the resuscitation had some kind of minimal effect in being able to move the blood through the body.

Now, after the autopsy, as I mentioned, we initiated a number of interviews, and about two days later one of the interviews was extremely important to us, and also the interviews with Dr. Jurosevic (ph) and Mr. Stem (ph). And Dr. Jurosevic reported to us that the pain in the buttock which I mentioned before, and therefore we went back and examined the body again. We did not see on the outside of the body, on the skin, nothing specific in the area except for some non-descript scars.

But when we did the dissection of the buttocks, we found evidence of prior injection in those areas, which were known, with severe scarring and damage or necrosis to the tissue. In addition, in the left buttock, we found multiple abscesses. And one of the abscesses, it was clear there was a hemorrhagic needle track. So it appeared that a needle, basically, went deep enough and perforated one of those abscesses.

We believe, and the infectious diseases experts agree with us, that the episode of very high fever -- 105 -- was most likely due to the fact that, at the time of the perforation of the abscess by the needle, infectious material (INAUDIBLE) infectious organism reached the blood and caused the high fever.

However, when we checked, by bacteriological studies, the blood, we didn't find any evidence of bacteria, which meant that the antibiotic was effective in keeping the infection under control. And additional tests for sepsis, or what's called blood poisoning, were equally negative. So basically she did not have at any time a raging infection, but she had an infection which initially started with what we call a bacteremia, or an invasion of blood by bacteria, which was later on controlled by antibiotics.

At that time, we started to receive additional tests, and none of those tests revealed any drug of addiction, such as opiate, cocaine, fentanil and so on. Methadone was negative in the blood, but was positive in the bile, which indicated that she might have methadone some two, three days prior to that.

What we found, however, were about nine prescription medications in her blood, including three medications which are against anxiety and depression. They are called benzodiazepin, and included klonopin, valium and ativan -- klonopin, valium and ativan -- and also an antihistaminic called benadryl. But they were all in therapeutic levels.

Therefore, at that time, again, the direction of our thinking changed and it looked like she died of natural causes, primarily the infection of the buttocks, because we did not find any kind of drugs in high concentration.

After that, in the third week of the autopsy, we were surprised...

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0703/26/cnr.02.html

"I know alot of people think she let a bad life, but she was a living breathing human. She did not deserve to die like this."

Most especially since it was HER money that was funding these people with their three room suites and food and so on and so on. They obviously didn't have JOBS or anything. SHE was their source and they couldn't even bring themselves to take care of her when she was sick with 105 fever?? I'm just downright mad now.

I have a question.

We know she had taken a lot of anti-depressants and anti-anxiety meds in addition to the choral hydrate.

How MUCH more did she take than subscribed??? And I use "subscribed" loosely. How much more than normal was she taken because she had been doctor shopping and allegedly the 3 doctors didn't know about eachother? (I don't believe this...I think Dr. KE knew what was going on?)