COULD THIS REALLY BE HOW SHE DIED?

The official results of Anna Nicole Smith's autopsy are not set to be announced until Monday morning, but The National Enquirer and Star Magazine have joined news gathering forces and claimed to have cracked the case! Obviously we won't know for sure if this contributed to the death of Anna Nicole until we hear from the medical examiner on Monday, but this sounds quite intriguing. Plus, at the rate The National Enquirer and the mag's editor-in-chief David Perel have been breaking stories of late (so much that other websites steal 'em days later and claim them as their own), I wouldn't be surprised if The Enquirer and Star were dead on.

Excerpts from their websites, The National Enquirer and Star report:

• Anna Nicole Smith died with a toxic level of the sleeping medication chloral hydrate in her system.
• The ENQUIRER and Star have also learned that Anna Nicole had a raging blood infection.
• The infection was caused by an unsterilized needle and contributed to her death. The infection was so serious, it would have killed her if she had not overdosed.
• The ENQUIRER learned that just before she left the Bahamas for Florida on February 5, three days before she died, Anna Nicole received an injection in her left buttock. Tests did not reveal what that substance was.
• "As she boarded the plane for Miami, Anna Nicole developed a painful abscess at the site of the injection," said a source with knowledge of the case. "The needle wasn't sterile. The pain kept getting worse as the abscess got larger and larger very quickly."
• Anna Nicole, unaware that her blood was being poisoned by infection, had also developed a second infection from a virulent form of norovirus, which causes intestinal problems.
• It was at this point that Anna Nicole — and her entourage — made a fatal mistake. She refused to go to a hospital, a decision that would have saved her life. Instead, Anna's people gave her an ice bath to control the fever, administered the antibiotic ciprofloxacin by mouth and gave her an over-the-counter flu medicine.
• On Wednesday, February 7, Anna seemed somewhat better, but she wasn't, the source said. "She was still vomiting and suffering diarrhea," said the source. "Again, she spent the whole day in bed, as the abscess continued to grow. She was in such pain, she just wanted to sleep."
• And that's when the final fatal mistake was made. Sometime overnight on February 7, Anna ingested the sleeping medication chloral hydrate. The drug is extremely potent. The dose was too much — and in fact it was a toxic level, the ENQUIRER and Star have learned exclusively.
• Preliminary analysis indicated the cause of death was systemic sepsis syndrome, a lethal blood infection. It was caused by the abscess of the left buttock.
• Further investigation revealed the fatal level of chloral hydrate. Chloral hydrate can cause depression of respiration, especially in a person who is already sick because of an infection and dehydration and it can cause death within a relatively short period of time.
• Anna Nicole also had scarring from numerous injections she got in the buttocks.

READ THE COMPLETE STORY OVER AT The National Enquirer.