annanicoledeathnews.jpg During a preliminary hearing today regarding the Anna Nicole Smith death investigation, California Department of Justice investigator Danny Santiago testified that witnesses said that before her death in February of 2007, Anna Nicole Smith was unable to walk without assistance and she was being kept in seclusion at the Hard Rock hotel in Hollywood, Florida.

Santiago recounted a detective's description of the late star as she arrived at the hotel on February 5. "He said she was being supported by Mr. Stern," Santiago said. "He was holding her as they walked through the lobby. He said she wasn't her usual vivacious self. She seemed down and was possibly ill." Santiago added that Smith "was so weak she could not sit up to drink liquids."

He also told the court that Smith's lawyer/lover Howard K. Stern told an investigator he had been giving Smith Pedialyte in a baby bottle and that she was so disoriented she asked where her baby was. Geez, maybe they should have taken her to a hospital at that point?

Stern also told investigators that Smith had complained of flu-like symptoms, and at one point Stern had to help Smith to the bathroom because she couldn't get there on her own, according to the witness.

Do you think if things had been done differently during her final days, Anna Nicole could have been saved? Or was she already a lost cause?