Anna Nicole Update

If a person tumbles down a staircase and dies as a result, the cause of death is say, a broken neck. But whether that person slipped on a banana peel or intentionally jumped or was pushed makes all the difference between an accident, a suicide or a murder.  That, I think, is what's going on in the Anna Nicole case.

On the verge of announcing the cause of Anna Nicole's death February 8th in the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, most likely from an accidental drug overdose, on Thursday, the medical examiner delayed his ruling pending the receipt of new evidence.

Investigating that evidence, the local Sun Sentinel newspaper reminds us today that a friend of Anna Nicole asked him to secure her belongings if "something ever happened" to her.

During testimony last month before a Florida court, that friend, Ford Shelly revealed that computers, video cassettes and documents removed from Smith's Bahamas home had been turned over to the sheriff in his native South Carolina, who turned it over to Seminole Florida police.

"He has concerns that something might have occurred that led to her death," Shelly's Florida attorney said yesterday.

Shelly, the son-in-law of the man who claims he is the real owner of the home Howard Stern continues to occupy in the Bahamas, also found the liquid methadone in her refrigerator.

Previously denying a criminal investigation, the State Attorney's office now says its prosecutors are helping police investigate suspicious circumstances surrounding the flamboyant blonde's death.

If a crime were committed, those under scrutiny would include the person who actually gave her the drugs.

Remember, both Shelly and his father-in-law Ben Thompson claim they saw Howard K. Stern flushing methadone down the toilet on the day Anna's son Daniel Smith overdosed last September.

Stern faces a coroner's inquest about Daniel's death later this month in the Bahamas.

Another person of interest in any investigation of either Daniel or Anna's death, assuming a drug overdose, would be the prescribing doctor, Sandeep Kapoor, who wrote her methadone prescription in a fake name, a non-existent address and had the potent medication mailed to a post office box in the Bahamas.

That alone might constitute criminal conduct, especially when you remember how stoned pregnant Anna seemed under Kapoor's care. When asked by a local reporter, "People assume she was on drugs, what do you say about that?"

Kapoor replied, "The baby didn't have any withdrawals the baby was healthy so its obvious she was not taking drugs."

Now listen to Dr. Joshua Perper, the peeved Broward County Medical Examiner.

"I spoke with everybody , only Dr. Kapoor of California refused to talk to me.  He's the only one, all of the others, everybody else who had any kind of medical contact or personal contact with her in the days before she died where very cooperative, he's the only exception."

We confirmed Friday that Kapoor, who partied hearty with Anna, and who calls himself a 'celebrity doctor' is now the subject of an investigation by the Medical Board of California.

After the coroner criticized him for failing to cooperate in the investigation of Anna's death, through his lawyer Kapoor claimed he was just protecting Anna's privacy; to which the coroner replied,          

"This is an attempt to clear himself from his failure to cooperate.  In other words, he cannot point to any kind of disclosure from medical records, which was done by me or by my office...And I even said to his attorney if he doesn't want to tell me about the medication which he prescribed, I want to know what was the condition of the person, what was the diagnosis.  And I wouldn't have disclosed them, but this would have been important information for me to correlate with my findings."

Friday, brother Craig caught up with the slippery Celebrity Doctor was as uncooperative as he had been with the medical examiner. You can see Craig's confrontation Saturday night at 8pm EST and again at 11pm EST on the Fox News Channel. Enjoy.