An untimely death, combined with a sordid saga, "suspicious circumstances" and a veil of secrecy do not necessarily a homicide make, according to police looking into the death of Anna Nicole Smith.
Bahamian authorities met with Seminole tribal police this week in Florida to discuss the ongoing investigation into the circumstances surrounding the Feb. 8 passing of the former Playboy cover girl, but officials have been quick to put the kibosh on speculation that they are conducting a homicide investigation.
The Broward County State Attorney's Office has denied that prosecutors were involved in the meeting that took place between the Seminole detectives on the case and Royal Bahamas Police Commissioner Paul Farquharson.
"We are continuing to help law enforcement agencies and the medical examiner as they try and figure out the nature of this death," state attorney's office spokesman Ron Ishoy said. "This is not a homicide investigation."
Broward County Medical Examiner Joshua Perper announced last week that he had arrived at a conclusion as to what killed Smith but was waiting to issue a final report until the police had concluded their inquiries. The Seminole Police Department said Friday that detectives had turned over two new pieces of evidence for Perper to consider.
The evidence being poked and prodded as authorities try to determine the sequence of events leading up to Smith being found unconscious in her room at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Florida, includes computer equipment found at the Bahamian residence Smith was sharing with partner Howard K. Stern and her infant daughter, Dannielynn. (For a guide to all the major players, check out our Anna Nicole cheat sheet.)
Last week, a friend of Smith's, Ford Shelley, turned over two laptop computers, an external hard drive, multiple mini-videocassettes and paperwork that he found in her Bahamian home to the Horry County Sheriff's Office in South Carolina, where Shelley lives.
The Myrtle Beach resident, who is the son-in-law of G. Ben Thompson, the owner of the waterfront mansion Smith originally was living in around the time she gave birth to Dannielynn, testified Feb. 22 in Broward Circuit Court that Smith had given him her computer password and told him to take possession of her computers and passports if anything ever happened to her.
Horry County authorities then gave the items to the Seminole police on Feb. 15, according to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.
Shelley's attorney, Walter "Skip" Campbell," told the Sun-Sentinel that his client handed the items over because Shelley feared that "something might have occurred that led to the death of Ms. Smith."
"No one's looking at anybody, no one's pointing the finger at anyone," Campbell, who's based in Fort Lauderdale, said. "The question is, is there any criminal responsibility from a legal standpoint? We are trying to make sure that everything is looked at that needs to be looked at."
Perper has said that he found no drugs in Smith's system during her autopsy, but prescription drugs were found in her hotel room and Shelley testified that he found liquid methadone in a refrigerator in Smith's bedroom in the Bahamas—which he did not bundle up along with the rest of the things he took from the home, he said.
It was a lethal combination of methadone and antidepressants that medical examiners have said killed Smith's 20-year-old son Daniel, who passed away in September in the Bahamas three days after Dannielynn was born. An inquest into the young man's death is scheduled for Mar. 27.
TMZ.com reported Thursday that police found a waybill on one of Smith's laptops listing prescriptions, including the pain-killer Demerol and the sleep disorder drug Dalmane, which were scheduled for shipment to her Bahamas address when she was eight months pregnant.
Beverly Hills doctor Maurice Levy, who was named on the waybill, told TMZ that the meds were shipped to Smith's address, but not prescribed for her. Vitamin B12 and Vitamin B complex were also sent over.