A white hearse carrying Anna Nicole Smith’s body drove toward a Bahamas church today where the former Playboy Playmate and reality TV star was to be laid to rest in a beaded gown and tiara after a tightly guarded memorial service.

The coffin holding Anna Nicole Smith’s body was today loaded onto a private flight to the Bahamas for her funeral, after weeks of legal wrangling over where the pin-up should be buried.

Anna Nicole Smith’s friends and family awaited the release of her body today, as they planned for starlet’s funeral in the Bahamas after weeks of legal wrangling over her remains.

Anna Nicole Smith’s estranged mother and her ex-boyfriend both testified that the starlet said she wanted to be buried in California, not the plots in the Bahamas or Texas that have been the focus of the fierce week-long legal debate.

A grief-stricken Anna Nicole Smith threw herself over her son’s body last fall as he lay in a coffin in the Bahamas, wailing, “If Daniel has to be buried, I want to buried with him,” her boyfriend testified at a hearing on where the former centrefold should be laid to rest.

The bickering over Anna Nicole Smith spiralled into a post-death legal war, with judges on both US coasts issuing rulings and a parade of lawyers fighting for control of the body.

Prescription drugs were found in former Playboy Anna Nicole Smith’s hotel room, but there were no pills in her stomach, investigators said tonight.

PRESCRIPTION drugs were found in Anna Nicole Smith’s hotel room, but there were no pills in her stomach, and investigators said last night they are awaiting tests that would tell whether or not the former centrefold died of an overdose, as some close to her suspect.

The cause of former Playboy model Anna Nicole Smith’s death remained a mystery tonight despite an autopsy.

A jogger in the US was killed by an alligator which ripped her arms off before dragging her body into a canal.