Whitney Houston Casket Photo: Funeral Home Owner Says She Knows Who Took It, But Won't Say Who

Carolyn Whigham, owner of the funeral home where Whitney Houston was laid to rest. REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz

When Whitney Houston's open casket funeral photo was leaked to the National Enquirer, both the public and Houston's family were shocked. Cissy Houston, Whitney's mother, went into overdrive trying to find out who did it.

Well, it looks like they've found the culprit – but won't say who!

Carolyn Whigham, owner of the funeral home where Houston was laid to rest on Martin Luther King Blvd. in Newark, N.J., has been denying rumors, spread widely by radio show host Tom Joyner, that she or someone on her staff was behind the leaks.

The New Jersey Star-Ledger quotes Whigham and two local pastors as saying they know who the leaker was, but wouldn't release the information, out of respect for Whitney's family.

It's up to the Houston family to release the name, Rev. Jethro James, pastor at Paradise Baptist Church, told the Star-Ledger.

The comments are sure to fuel speculation that someone from within the Houston camp is responsible for the leak, which surely netted the recipient six figures, and possibly as much as half-a-million dollars.

Time will tell if the individual who leaked the image will ever be revealed, gossip site Scallywag & Vagabond mused earlier this week, but it seems for now, that Cissy might have had a private talk with our antagonist and has been forced for the sake of saving face to call it a day.

Speculation had originally been that Bobby Brown's sister, Tina, who has in the past leaked photos of Whitney's drug use to the Sun, was behind the leak, although it's not clear that she was even invited to the private viewing, and she's fallen off the radar of ardent casket photo leak watchers.

This of course doesn't mean Cissy's done hunting for photo leakers – her next target is apparently the person who took the photo of Whitney Houston being wheeled out of the Beverly Hills Hilton where she died last month. She says the police will soon be on the case, but a Beverly Hills PD spokesman denied that a crime was even committed.

Although taking the photo was disrespectful, Rumor Fix wrote, the lieutenant says he isn't sure any laws were broken.