Whitney Houston's Sister-in-Law Relives Night the Singer Died

USMagazine, Monday, March 12, 2012, 6:49am (PDT)

February 11 was a night Patricia Houston will never forget.

The late Whitney Houston's sister-in-law and one of her closest confidantes, Patricia sat down with Oprah Winfrey (as did Bobbi Kristina Brown, Houston's daughter) to remember the "I Will Always Love You" singer and the shocking night that she died in her Beverly Hilton hotel room.

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After running some errands around town, Patricia returned to the hotel and "heard screams," she recalled on Oprah: The Next Chapter as both she and Winfrey wept. "And I saw the hairstylist drop to her knees. And I knew something was wrong. I was just numb.

Heading into Houston's hotel room, she saw her own brother, the star's longtime bodyguard Ray, attempting to resuscitate her "to the point of exhaustion."

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Despondent, Ray told her, "'I tried' . . . He was so out of breath, I felt so badly for him."

Did Houston die in the bathtub, as widely reported?

"I don't know how she got there -- [paramedics] had to pull her out of the tub and were trying to revive her," Patricia explained.

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"I saw them cover her up and I knew that was it. I knew that was it. Just looking at her and watching that, I still could not believe it."

Houston was 48. She was laid to rest one week later in her native New Jersey.

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