Accidental Drug Overdose Killed Anna Nicole Smith

The former Playboy model Anna Nicole Smith died from an accidental sleeping medication overdose, US police said today, finally ruling out any suspicion of foul play more than six weeks after her death.

While chloral hydrate, a sedative used to treat insomnia and alcohol withdrawal and relieve anxiety was the major factor, Smith had also been taking eight other prescription drugs, including methadone and valium, authorities in Florida said.

A bacterial infection from injecting medication in her buttocks and flu also contributed to her death, the autopsy report said.

"We are convinced ... that this case is an accidental overdose with no other criminal elements present," Charlie Tiger, head of police for the Seminole native American tribe, told reporters in Florida as he presented the findings.

Smith died of "combined drug intoxication" with chloral hydrate as the principal contributor, Broward county medical examiner Joshua Perper said. There was no evidence of illegal drugs in her body, he added.

Smith, 39, was found unconscious in her room at the Seminole Hard Rock hotel and casino in Hollywood on February 8 and declared dead later that day, setting off a chain of controversy and legal wrangling that mirrored her turbulent life.

The Seminole police department investigated the case because the casino is on tribal land.

Autopsy results were delayed for several weeks because police said they had found additional evidence that might have a bearing on the case.

Mr Tiger said authorities had examined laptop computers belonging to Smith and her lawyer and companion, Howard K Stern, and found nothing unusual related to her death.

There was also an exhaustive review of tapes from hotel security cameras and from interviews with numerous witnesses, Mr Tiger added.

Smith became famous in 1994 when she married oil magnate J Howard Marshall, when he was 89 and she was 26. After Marshall's death the following year, she spent a decade locked in a legal battle with his family over his $500m (£254m) estate.

The death of Smith, who had a history of drug use, sparked a new legal battle as her long-term companion and estranged mother squabbled over where she should be buried.

Eventually, early this month, Smith was buried in the Bahamas next to her son, Daniel, who died last year aged 20, although lawyers for her mother said they would make further efforts to remove her body and have it re-buried in her native Texas.

There is a separate dispute over the paternity of Smith's five-month-old daughter, Dannielynn, who possibly stands to inherit a fortune.

One cause of the delay to the burial was a legal argument by photographer Larry Birkhead, who claims paternity of Dannielynn. He wanted DNA to be taken from Smith's body to be compared with samples from Dannielynn to make sure the baby had not been secretly switched with another one to foil tests establishing him as the father.