LOS ANGELES (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 said.
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 in the Houston case found several bottles of prescription medication in the Beverly Hills, Calif., hotel room where she died Saturday, 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.