The Tragic 2015 Death Of Bobbi Kristina Brown
After lingering for six months in a coma, Bobbi Kristina Brown, the only child of singers Bobby Brown and Whitney Houston, succumbed to her injuries while at a hospice center in Duluth, Georgia. The 22-year-old had been found face down in a bathtub on January 31, 2015, per NBC News. Paramedics at the scene were not successful in reviving her, leading to doctors making a quick decision to put the young vocalist in a medically induced coma. As her condition worsened, she was eventually moved into hospice care where she died on July 27, 2015.
Brown's death was wrought with circumstances that were as tragic as they were suspicious, culminating in a thorough police investigation into a prime suspect who was thought to have had a heavy hand in the position she was found in. In the months after she was discovered in the water and following an autopsy performed by a medical examiner, it would be revealed that Brown's death was avoidable. But who was to blame for Brown's demise?
Brown's official cause of death is unclassified
Eight months after her death, a judge ordered the autopsy report to be unsealed at the request of the media. The BBC reports that, while the medical examiner's ultimate ruling was an "unclassified" cause of death, there were plenty of underlying causes. A toxicology report revealed that Brown had both THC and alcohol in her bloodstream when she was found submerged in the bathwater. Additionally, a prescription medication used for treating anxiety was present. The inquest ruled that the presence of this combination of drugs was enough to have a cause of death ruled to be "immersion associated with drug intoxication."
But if it was evident that the drugs were the reason she was underwater, then why would the official ruling be "unclassified?" BBC News continues to explain the medical examiner's reasoning, reporting that, though these drugs were present and likely responsible, there was no way in determining if her death was accidental from an overdose or self-inflicted. Additionally, the coroner's report could not rule out that homicide was a factor.
Brown was in the home she shared with her boyfriend, 25-year-old Nick Gordon. Gordon was the one who found Brown, calling for help after he could not revive her. Noting bruises on her body, an investigation was underway to determine if Gordon might have had a hand in Brown's death.
Gordon was sued by Brown's family for wrongful death
Brown's family believed that Gordon was physically abusive toward the 22-year-old singer. While the bruises on her body were most likely caused by an auto accident that she was involved in two days before she was found by Gordon in their bathtub (via CBS News), people close to Brown maintained that Gordon demonstrated a pattern of violence that they could prove in court.
In a civil lawsuit filed against Gordon, Brown's family blamed Gordon outright for her death. They claimed that Gordon not only physically assaulted Brown the morning that she was found, but that he was the one who had given her the cocaine that was a contributing factor in her death. The Daily Beast notes that police had been called to their residence before on domestic violence allegations, though no one appeared to be home when they arrived.
After more than a year of litigation, Gordon failed twice to show up to hearings. This led to Brown's estate getting a default judgment against him, making him civilly liable for her death. CNN reports that a jury awarded the estate a $36 million wrongful death payout.
Tragically, Gordon's demons eventually got the better of him. In 2020, CNN reported that he died from a heroin overdose.
Brown's death was eerily similar to her mother's
When Brown's mother, Whitney Houston, was fouhttps://www.thethings.com/whit...nd submerged in her Beverly Hills hill hotel room on February 11, 2012. In her room, investigators found various prescription drug bottles, open containers of alcohol, and assorted drug paraphernalia. Near her body was a spoon that had traces of a white, powdery substance.
An autopsy would soon reveal a cause of death that was multi-layered. CBS News reports that the medical examiner determined that the Grammy-Award-winning vocalist died from a combination of drowning and the "effects of atherosclerotic heart disease and cocaine use." The autopsy showed that there were several controlled substances in her system at the time of her death, including cocaine, marijuana, and alcohol. The prescription drugs Xanax and Flexeril were also present in the toxicology report. The medical examiner concluded that, though multiple drugs were present, the only one that contributed to Houston's death was cocaine.
When comparing Brown's death side-by-side with her mother's, several eerie coincidences tie the two tragic deaths together. The abuse of controlled substances was certainly a factor in each of their deaths. But adding in the location where both women were found was fodder for some conspiracy theories.
Interestingly enough, according to The Things, a 2021 Showtime documentary titled "Whitney Houston and Bobbi Kristina: Didn't We Almost Have it All?" revealed that the day before Houston's death, she may have saved her daughter's life. Houston told the family that "God told her" to check on her daughter, whom she found asleep in a bathtub at the Beverly Hilton Hotel where Houston would be found unresponsive the following morning.