The evidence for the alleged struggle, he says, lies in the coroner’s report. The coroner, for instance, noted that a large area of skin on Houston’s lower back was burnt off — so-called ‘skin slippage’ — by the scalding bath water. The water was so hot that six hours after she died it was 33c (93.5f).
Even someone high on cocaine wouldn’t ‘willingly’ get into a bath that hot, says Huebl, who adds: ‘She obviously had “help”.’
As for the report’s revelations that Houston had injuries on her forearms and hands, Huebl claims these are ‘consistent with her having a pretty nasty struggle and consistent with classic defence wounds.
There were bruises on her arms and shoulders, a cut on her upper lip, scrapes to her nose and forehead, and lacerations to her scalp.’
In fact, the singer had so many injuries it looked as though she’d been in a boxing match, he says.
‘Call this an accident if you want, but it doesn’t make sense to me.’
He believes that after Whitney was killed, her assailants ransacked her suite, took money, drugs and jewellery, and left before her assistant returned.
Huebl, whose investigation was first reported in the National Enquirer, is by no means the first person to have been puzzled by Houston’s death and her bizarre behaviour in her final days.
In the early hours of her last day, a stoned-looking Houston was seen on her hotel balcony, shouting: ‘I’m tired of this s***!’
Some people have wondered if it was a cry of desperation from a superstar who realised her precious voice —with its famous three-and-a-half octave range — was gone for ever.
But Huebl believes it was a cry from the heart over the harassment she was getting to repay the money she owed her drug dealers.
He says he was told by an informant that Houston had earlier taken possession of a new supply of cocaine and been partying with a small group of people, including her killers, in her suite until around 4am. When she refused to pay them, they left and returned later that day with fatal consequences.
As Huebl notes, Houston had a ‘risky lifestyle’ including heroin and crack-cocaine abuse, and inevitably surrounded herself with others involved in that criminal world.
As to the identities of her alleged killers, Huebl clearly has his suspicions. However, he will say only that Houston’s alleged murder could have its roots in more than one state. He claims drug-world sources have told him that people from New Jersey and Georgia — states where Houston has lived — were involved.