Anna Nicole's Son Hires Private Detective

Daniel met with a Detective Rick Harding last summer, after a mutual friend put them in touch. This was just after a pregnant Anna Nicole moved to the Bahamas with Howard K. Stern.

Investigate Stern

The private investigator says Daniel wanted him to investigate his mother's relationship with her lawyer, Howard K. Stern. Daniel told Harding he feared his mother was being held "a virtual prisoner" in Nassau, the Bahamas by Stern.


 

Stern The Svengali

The late son of Anna Nicole Smith, Daniel, reportedly feared his mother was being kept in a drugged state. Harding said Daniel felt that Stern was controlling his mother "like a svengali."
 

Detective Stunned By Daniel's death

Weeks later the 20-year-old was dead of an overdose. Harding was shocked because he says in all his dealings with Daniel he did not appear to be under the influence of any drugs.

"He was sober," he said. "He was shy."

Detective Very Suspicious

Harding's was suspicions to start with after Daniel died, but when his mother died of a drug overdose, bells went off.

"It's too soon to be a coincidence," he said. "If I was the investigator there, I would tear everything apart to find this out."
 

What Did Stern Do During This?

Harding said that just three hours before his mysterious death, Anna Nicole Smith's son was playing with his newborn sister. But by 9.30am, Daniel Smith, 20, was covered in blood and vomit and dead in his mother's hospital room.