Anna Nicole Smith's body embalmed under tight security

Under conditions of extraordinary security and secrecy, Anna Nicole Smith's body was finally embalmed Saturday after 10 days of legal wrangles and a last-minute switch of morticians. Broward Medical Examiner Dr. Joshua Perper said the Jupiter-based Aycock Funeral Home performed the 3-hour embalming of Smith's body starting about 9 a.m. Perper said he and his chief investigator were on hand to monitor the process. "The body was in fairly good state except for some early changes of deterioration," he said. Saturday's procedure ended only one of the many conflicts to have arisen since Smith's death Feb. 8 in Hollywood. Still unresolved are the battles over who will bury the former Playboy centerfold turned reality show star, obtain custody of her 5-month-old daughter, Dannielynn, or inherit what may be a vast fortune. Her estate was left in a 2001 will to her recently deceased son, Daniel. The cause of the 39-year-old's death also remains a mystery, though Perper said he has already conducted at least one key interview and planned to gather more evidence in coming days. The conflict over embalming Smith's body was short-lived. Hollywood-based Fred Hunter's Funeral Home had been selected to perform the embalming Friday but balked at signinga confidentiality agreement, Perper said. The agreement forbids talking about, writing about, drawing or photographing the body, though Perper said the funeral home's chief concern was over its potential liability if the procedure went bad The funeral home relented, but its embalmers refused to sign the form, Perper said. The Jupiter funeral home was then hired. Before its employees began their work, they were frisked for cameras or cell phones that could take photographs. Perper and his chief investigator, Edwina Johnson, watched as they worked. Smith's remains were then placed into a black bag and sealed with evidence tape. The bag was placed in a locked cage that in turn was sealed with tape. Perper said only one of his employees has the key to the cage, which was put in a locked freezer that will be guarded around the clock by two Broward sheriff's deputies. Perper, Broward County's medical examiner since 1994, said he couldn't recall a case requiring such security measures. But, he said, a break-in at Smith's home in the Bahamas soon after her death erased any doubts he had about the decision. "Somebody may be so deranged that they'd maybe break into the medical examiner's office and maybe take the body or damage the body or take a photograph -- who knows what," he said. Perper said the ongoing legal battles over Smith's estate and the fate of her daughter had not held up the investigation into her death. Smith's partner and boyfriend, Howard K. Stern, and Smith's mother, Virgie Arthur, have been fighting to obtain Smith's body for burial. A legal challenge from Larry Birkhead, one of the three men claiming to be the father of Smith's baby, delayed the embalming so DNA samples could be taken for paternity tests. Perper said he has conducted a phone interview with Stern, who accompanied Smith to the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino. On Monday, Perper plans to interview Smith's nurse, who found her unresponsive in her room at the Hard Rock. The medical examiner said his office also wants Smith's medical records from the Bahamas. Because of security concerns, he may have an investigator retrieve the records by hand. Perper said his office already has received some results from tests conducted to determine Smith's cause of death, but refused to disclose any information until all data were in, a process that could take a few more weeks. "It's like being in a foggy area," he said. "Every piece of information which we obtain takes away some of the fog, but not completely."