Whitney Houston was under water and apparently unconscious when she was found in a hotel bathtub, Beverly Hills police have said.
The 48-year-old singer was found on Saturday by a member of her personal staff at about 3.30 pm.
She was pulled from the tub by members of her staff, and hotel security was promptly notified, said Lieutenant Mark Rosen. Further details of Houston's death are not being released to preserve the integrity of the investigation, he said.
The coroner's office said toxicology testing was continuing. There were no indications of foul play and no obvious signs of trauma on Houston's body, but officials were not ruling out any causes of death until they have toxicology results, which are likely take weeks to obtain.
Two people who have spoken her family said the singer's body will be taken home to New Jersey for a funeral to be held at the end of the week. They said the family has raised the possibility of holding a wake on Thursday and funeral on Friday in New Jersey at Newark's Prudential Centre, which can seat 18,000.
The singer was found unresponsive in her hotel room at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, just hours before she was supposed to appear at a pre-Grammy gala. The Grammys themselves were in part a memorial to Houston, a six-time winner.
A sensation from her very first album, Houston was one of the world's best-selling artists from the mid-1980s to the late 1990s with vocals rooted in gospel and polished for the masses, a bridge between the earthy passion of her godmother, Aretha Franklin, and the bouncy pop of her cousin, Dionne Warwick.
Bishop TD Jakes, a Texas minister and producer on Houston's final film project, a re-make of the 1970s release Sparkle, said he saw no signs she was having any substance problems.
He said Houston was a complete professional and moved the cast and crew to tears two months ago when she sang the gospel hymn Her Eyes on the Sparrow for a scene shot in Detroit.
"There was no evidence in working with her on Sparkle that there was any struggle in her life," he said. "She just left a deep impression on everybody."