Judge Orders Anna Nicole Smith's Remains to be Preserved

A Judge today, during a paternity hearing, refused to order a DNA test to be done on Anna Nicole Smith, but nor did he deny the resquest. The Judge ordered it to go to a full hearing on February 20, says Larry Birkheads attorney, Debra Opri. Anna Nicole's body is to be preserved until the hearing date.

MSNBC report

Larry Birkhead: "Anna was the love of my life"

Larry Birkhead will not be attending today's DNA hearing as he is "beyond distraught" over the death of Anna Nicole Smith, says Larry Birkhead's attorney Debra Opri.

Opri is on her way to the hearing, where she will ask a judge to order that Anna Nicole Smith's DNA be tested. Opri says "there is no known biological father at this point in time. Larry has been prevented from giving a DNA sample, Howard K. Stern has refused to give a DNA sample."

Anna Nicole's mother, Virgie Arthur is the only known biological living next of kin, and legal next of kin, and Opri says that Dannielynn should be handed over to Virgie Arthur until the whole issue of Dannielynn's paternity is decided.

Birkhead is exteremly upset over the sudden death yesterday of Anna Nicole Smith and has spoken out on his blog Larrybirkhead.net with a poem:

Chance brought us together, our love
couldn't keep us apart. We loved, we
laughed, we shared a connection that
couldn't be broken, regardless of
the
challenges. I loved her in life and I will
love her long after.

Our daughter, Dannielynn is a constant
reminder of the love we
shared and the
life that we desired.

My heart is broken, my
tears
are
endless. She called me her angel, I
called her my
sweet
potato, and
every
night before we went to sleep, she
made
me say to
her...........

"GOODNIGHT MY SWEET ANNA BABY"
ANNA
NICOLE SMITH 1967-2007

Birkhead has tirelessly maintained that he is Dannielynn's father and wishes to take custody of his daughter.

Many questions are surrounding the death of Anna Nicole:

Where there illegal drugs in the hotel room?
Will this turn into a murder investigation?
How much money does she really have?
Where exactly is Dannielynn right now?
Does Howard K Stern have any paternity rights in the Bahamas as he is named the father on Dannielynn's birth certificate?

Hopefully some of these questions will be answered later today when the coroner in Broward County, FL, releases his autopsy report.