Tonight on Nancy Grace, cops find a female body in a 50 gallon barrel buried in a shallow grave. Is it missing 16 year-old, Angela Allen?

A friend of Whitney Houston’s ex-husband, Bobby Brown, told HLN’s Nancy Grace Thursday that Brown is “distraught” over the singer’s death.

“He’s taking it really hard,” Derrick Handspike said. “…He’s pretty hurt right now.”

In Handspike’s book, "Bobby Brown: The Truth, The Whole Truth, Nothing But," The New Edition singer is quoted as saying that he never used cocaine until after he met Houston. Handspike confirmed that is what Brown told him.

“Whitney was her own person, you know,” Handspike said. “Whitney liked to party and have a good time too, I mean, just as well as Bobby.”

Handspike said he was also upset when he heard that Houston had died. “Devastated. Devastated,” he said of his reaction. “I mean, I couldn’t even believe it. It’s still really just registering now and sinking in.”

For in depth coverage of the investigation into Whitney Houston’s death watch Nancy Grace tonight at 8 & 10 p.m. ET only on HLN.

The mother of a missing Maine toddler said in a new interview that she is considering a lawsuit against the social services agency that was supposed to be overseeing her daughter’s care.

Trista Reynolds told the Portland Daily Sun that the Maine Department of Health and Human Services should have investigated 20-month-old Ayla Reynolds’ living conditions while the girl was staying with her father and performed background checks on his family members. Ayla was reportedly last seen at father Justin DiPietro’s home on the night of Dec. 16, 2011. He claimed she was gone the next morning.

“I think if they checked up on Ayla, we wouldn’t be where we are today,” Reynolds said, according to the Sun.

Reynolds claimed DiPietro took custody of the girl with DHHS support while she was in rehab last October, and she said the agency did not properly monitor Ayla after that.

Citing strict confidentiality policies, DHHS has refused to comment about the case to HLN or other news outlets. A spokesperson told the Sun they could not even confirm whether they were involved with Ayla’s case at all.

An attorney representing DiPietro’s sister and mother is also now speaking out. In an interview with the Morning Sentinel, Steve Bourget said Elisha and Phoebe DiPietro are cooperating with police and have told them everything they know.

Elisha, 23, was in the house on Dec. 16, along with Justin’s girlfriend and two other young children, and police have suggested that three adults are holding back information about what happened that night.

“As far as Elisha is concerned, she has been honest, open and told the whole truth,” Bourget said.

Phoebe DiPietro, Elisha and Justin’s mother and the owner of the house, has told CNN she was not home on the night of Dec. 16 when Ayla allegedly vanished. Speaking to WLBZ, Bourget denied rumors that there was a party there that night and said Phoebe would not have allowed drugs or alcohol in the house.

Waterville police announced Tuesday that charges have been filed in a vandalism incident at that house earlier this month. On the night of Feb. 3, Phoebe DiPietro called 911 because someone was breaking her windows. In a press release, police said 19-year-old Jeremy Hanson has confessed and was summoned for criminal mischief and violating the conditions of release.

The second charge stems from a previous unrelated case involving alleged driving to endanger, criminal mischief and reckless conduct with a weapon, according to police. Police do not know if he had any connection to DiPietro’s family. FULL POST

Nancy Grace spoke with Whitney Houston's godmother and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame singer Darlene Love.

Love remembers meeting Whitney when she was only eight-years-old. She describes Whitney as a caring, nurturing young child who always took care of others. Love begins to cry as she tells HLN's Nancy Grace how positive and full of life Whitney always was, saying, "...she was a light, that has been put out."

For more on this story, watch Nancy Grace weeknights at 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. EST on HLN.

Whitney Houston, the Grammy award-winning pop singer, has passed away at the age of 48, according to her publicist Kristen Foster.

Houston was pronounced dead at 3:55 p.m. PT Saturday at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California, a police spokesman said, adding that there were "no obvious signs of criminal intent" and that the cause of her death is still being investigated.

CNN

​See: Celeb reactions to the tragic news of Whitney's death

Houston sold more than 170 million albums, singles and videos over the course of her career, according to her official website.

She had a string of seven straight number one hits on the Billboard pop chart in the 1980s, including "Saving All My Love for You" and "The Greatest Love of All."

The music legend was also an actress, best known for her star turn with Kevin Costner in 1992's "The Bodyguard." The soundtrack to that film is one of the top-10 biggest selling albums of all time.

Houston recently filmed "Sparkle," a remake of the 1976 hit that's loosely based on the story of The Supremes. It was her first movie role since 1996's "The Preacher's Wife." The film - co-starring Mike Epps and Cee-Lo Green - is due out August 10, according to Sony pictures.

She married R&B singer Bobby Brown in 1992 and gave birth to a daughter, Bobbi Kristina Houston Brown - her only child - nearly a year later. The two had a tumultuous relationship, some of which was documented on the reality show "Being Bobby Brown" on the Bravo network. The pair divorced in 2007, and Whitney was awarded custody of their daughter.

For more on this story go to: www.HLNtv.com

• Report: Blood and hair found in Bashara garage
• Daughter says she does not believe father is guilty
• Attorney claims couple had 'open marriage'

A Michigan man who police have called a person of interest in his wife’s murder is scared he could be facing life in prison, and his attorney now says the couple had an “open marriage,” according to a new report.

Bob Bashara and his daughter Jessie both professed his innocence in the murder of Jane Bashara in an interview with ABC’s “Good Morning America.”

“I know that he did not do it,” Jessie Bashara said, and she denied that there was any violence in her parents’ relationship at all.

“My belief is that it was an open marriage,” Bashara’s attorney, David Griem, said in the same report, responding to claims that his client was having an affair.

Police conducted a second search of Bob and Jane Bashara’s Grosse Pointe Park home Wednesday, according to Detroit News reporter George Hunter. On HLN’s“Nancy Grace” Thursday, Hunter said his sources told him investigators found blood and hair in the garage that is being sent out of state for testing.

Jane Bashara was found dead in her Mercedes in a Detroit alley about eight miles from the house on January 25. Police said autopsy results showed that she was strangled.

Griem told reporters at a press conference last week that Joe Gentz, a man who police have confirmed to HLN is related to the case, gave investigators several conflicting stories alleging that he and Bob Bashara were involved in the murder. Gentz had done manual labor at Bashara’s rental properties over the last two or three years, Griem said, and they recently had a heated disagreement about billing. According to Griem, Bashara gave police Gentz’s name early in the investigation as someone who might want to harm his family.

An attorney appointed to represent Gentz, Susan Reed, told HLN Thursday that her client had been in police custody last week and was later released, but she declined to discuss the case further.

“I just want truth. I want justice. I want real justice to be done,” Gentz said in an exclusive interview with WDIV.

A court determined Wednesday that Gentz can still have supervised visits with his 10-year-old daughter, who is currently in foster care, according to WXYZ.

Griem told the Detroit Free Press that police were leaking information about what Gentz said to them because they have no evidence against his client.

For the latest on this and other cases, watch "Nancy Grace" weeknights at 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. EST on HLN.