Bobbi Kristina Brown has died aged 22 – six months after she was found unconscious in a bathtub. The aspiring singer was rushed to hospital and placed in a medically-induced coma on January 31 after she was discovered face-down in the water-filled tub at her townhouse in Roswell, Georgia.
She was later transferred to Peachtree Christian Hospice, where her distraught family and loved ones maintained a bedside vigil and eventually said their goodbyes as her condition deteriorated.
She passed away, surrounded by her family, at the hospice on Sunday – just three years after her famous mother, singer Whitney Houston, died aged 48 in a bathtub at a hotel in Beverly Hills.
According to TMZ, officials are planning to treat the death of Bobbi Kristina – who was found in the tub with bruises on her face and body, swollen lips and a missing tooth – as a murder investigation.
The first person of interest in the case will reportedly be her boyfriend, Nick Gordon.
On Sunday night, Gordon – who was banned from visiting his girlfriend by the Brown and Houston families – was said to be ‘out of control with regret and sadness’ after learning of her death.
‘Nick is on suicide watch. He keeps saying that if only [Bobbi Kristina] had heard his voice, things would have been different. She may have lived,’ an anonymous source told HollywoodLife.com.
The Houston family said in a statement that Bobbi Kristina – who was the sole heir to her late mother’s fortune, estimated to be a huge $20million – ‘is now finally at peace in the arms of God.’
In a statement via a representative, they said: ‘Bobbi Kristina Brown passed away July, 26 2015, surrounded by her family. She is finally at peace in the arms of God. We want to again thank everyone for their tremendous amount of love and support during these last few months.’
Meanwhile, Bobbi Kristina’s father, Bobby Brown, was said by a relative on his side of the family to be ‘very emotional’ about his daughter’s death – but to know ‘that [she] is in a better place now’.
‘He is taking comfort in the fact that she’s with her mother, and that there will be no more sadness or pain. She is at peace. He knows that, and is taking comfort in that,’ the family member told People.
They added that Brown had spent Sunday contacting loved ones to tell them the news himself.
In the final few weeks of her life, Bobbi Kristina’s family members had made the difficult decision to withdraw her medication after being told by specialists that there was no hope of her recovery.
The Fulton County Medical Examiner’s Office confirmed Bobbi Kristina’s death on Sunday night.
At present, it is unclear at what time in the day Bobbi Kristina slipped away. The reported murder investigation is pending an autopsy on her body, which is expected to take place in coming days.
On Sunday night, thousands of celebrities and fans were expressing their heartbreak at Bobbi Kristina’s death, and sending messages of condolences and support to her grieving family.
Oprah Winfrey tweeted: ‘Peace at Last! #BobbiKristina’ while singer Missy Elliott wrote: ‘My heart is truly heavy. May u rest in peace with your mommy… sending prayers 2 the Brown’Houston family.’
Dr Phil added: ‘Deeply saddened by the news of Bobbi Kristina’s passing. Sending thoughts and prayers from all of us at Dr. Phil.’ And model Kylie Jenner, 17, said she would ‘never forget’ her.
A statement on Whitney Houston’s official Facebook page on Sunday night read: ‘It is hard to say goodbye. On Sunday, July 26, Bobbi Kristina Brown made her transition peacefully.’
‘As Bobbi Kristina would say: “The wind is behind me and the sun is in my face”.’
In the days before Bobbi Kristina’s death, her aunt and co-legal guardian Pat Houston, 55, had reportedly begun the heartbreaking process of cleaning out her dying niece’s townhouse.
‘She kept all the pictures and Whitney’s platinum and gold album plaques. But she threw everything else out,’ a source close to Brown told US Weekly. ‘Everything is at Pat’s house now.’
On Saturday – just a day before she died – Bobbi Kristina’s loved ones had been spotted arriving at the hospice, where a tent was erected in which a hearse could inconspicuously take away a casket.
Pat Houston and Uncle Tommy – the brother of Bobbi Kristina’s R&B singer father – both looked visibly upset as they walked away from the facility after visiting their comatose niece.
A week earlier, a hearse had been pictured arriving at the hospice, while other family and friends, including Whitney Houston’s friend, music producer Tyler Perry, had turned up to bid her goodbye.
Another hearse later pulled up to the tent, which blocked the view of the hospice’s back door. The sightings fueled speculation on whether or not Bobbi Kristina was still alive inside the facility.
These speculations came to a halt on Sunday night following the news of her passing. Whitney Houston’s beloved ex-body guard, Ray Watson, was also seen visiting the hospice last week.
Watson arrived looking somber and spent over 30 minutes alone in his car after his visit last Wednesday, while Pat Houston and Perry spent an hour at Bobbi Kristina’s bedside last Friday.
Bobbi Kristina – her mother’s only child – had been taken to the hospice on June 24 to ‘die naturally’. Two months earlier, her grandma, Cissy Houston, had said she had ‘irreversible brain damage’.
The Houston family had kept largely mum on Bobbi Kristina’s condition since Pat Houston said her niece was ‘in God’s hands’ after she was transferred to the end-of-life facility from hospital.
As TMZ reports, the family was prepared to let Bobbi Kristina die at the hospice after doctors gave them no hope of her recovery. Pat Houston and Bobby Brown later agreed to stop her medication.
‘Despite the great medical care at numerous facilities, Bobbi Kristina Brown’s condition has continued to deteriorate,’ read a family statement, made in June.
‘As of today, she has been moved into hospice care.’
While Bobbi Kristina’s relatives had continued to flock to her bedside over the past six months, her ex-boyfriend, Gordon, 25, had been banned from visiting his former lover by her family.
A protective order also barred him from being within 200 feet of Pat Houston.
Gordon, who is currently living in Florida and has claimed that he and Bobbi Kristina were married, is also subject to a $10million lawsuit claiming he attacked her on January 31.
Later that day, Brown was found face down and unresponsive in the bathtub in her Atlanta area home. She underwent surgery to replace her breathing tube with a tracheotomy tube in February.
She was originally placed into a medically-induced coma after the horrific discovery, which was made in circumstances eerily reminiscent of her internationally-famous mother’s death.
Whitney Houston was found dead in a bathtub in her Los Angeles hotel just hours before she was due to attend a pre-Grammy awards party in February 2010. Her death was ruled accidental.
However, police are treating Bobbi Kristina’s near-drowning, alleged injuries and subsequent death as a criminal investigation – with speculation mounting that Gordon will face murder charges.
Meanwhile, the Houstons are looking for justice through a civil suit.
A court-appointed representative of Bobbi Kristina has filed an explosive lawsuit against Gordon claiming that he took money from her and abused her physically and emotionally.
Bedilia Hargrove launched the suit in Fulton County Superior Court. The complaint says Gordon routinely transferred large sums of money from Bobbi Kristina’s accounts to his without permission.
The suit also accuses Gordon of misrepresenting his relationship with Bobbi Kristina, being violent toward her and taking more than $11,000 from her account after she was found in the bathtub.
The image reportedly showed Bobbi Kristina pictured lying in a bed at Peachtree Christian Hospice, which is based in Duluth, Georgia, while an unidentified female relative hovered over her.
Bobbi Kristina, whose father is a Grammy Award winner, was an aspiring singer who began performing with her mother as early as 1999, singing duets of “My Love is Your Love.”
In 2003 they recorded another duet of ‘Little Drummer Boy’ for a holiday album.
Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown both struggled with substance abuse and divorced when their daughter was 14. Houston described their 15-year marriage as drug- and alcohol-fueled.
The couple’s tempestuous relationship was chronicled in the short-lived television series, ‘Being Bobby Brown’.
Bobbi Kristina was hospitalized twice with anxiety after her mother’s death.
In 2012 she starred on Lifetime’s reality TV show, ‘The Houstons: On Our Own’ in which Houston’s family struggled to recover from the famous singer’s death. The same year Bobbi Kristina Brown guest-starred on ‘For Better or Worse’, a TV series about a married couple.
Just a few weeks before his daughter’s death, Bobby Brown welcomed a new baby girl into his family. Brown and his wife Alicia Ethridge welcomed a newborn daughter on July 9.
Ethridge, who wed the R&B star in 2012, was induced at Cedars Sinai hospital in Los Angeles.
Brown and Etheridge already have a five-year-old son named Cassius.
Brown has a total of six children, including Bobbi Kristina with late ex-wife Whitney Houston.
Brown performed at the Affordable Old School Concert series in Atlanta on Saturday, July 4, where the 46-year-old singer repeatedly apologized to the audience as he stumbled through the set and forgot lyrics and dance moves, TMZ reported.
In a video taken at the gig, the singer could be heard telling the crowd: ‘I’m in a different zone.’
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