He said something like, "Michael didn't make it, I'm sorry." It wasn't right. It felt weird.'In all the confusion, she says, the doctor later 'disappeared'. It is at this point, La Toya says, that her concerns were heightened. She was told by a different doctor that
Michael had fresh needle marks on his body.
According to reports, Jackson used intravenous anaesthetics to help
him sleep, including Demerol and
Diprivan, a drug never normally used outside the operating theatre.
Police also removed two bagfuls of prescription drugs issued to various aliases from pharmacies in different US states. They have subpoenaed the star's medical records from a series of doctors. La Toya says: 'It will all come out. You will be shocked.'
The official coroner's report is due soon along with the results of a second autopsy, which La Toya arranged, She says: 'We want to sit down and compare the two reports before anything is made public. I have a strong idea of what the outcome will be but
I cannot say anything at this stage.
'He had needle marks on his neck and on his arms and more about those will emerge in the next few weeks. I cannot discuss that any further as I may jeopardise the investigation. I can, however, say that I have not changed my mind about my feeling that Michael was murdered.'
After returning from the hospital with the children and her mother to Katherine's home, they received a troubling call from the Jackson mansion. It was Michael's long-term assistant Michael Amin, a devout Muslim known as Brother Michael.
He told La Toya that her brother's Lebanese-born, self-appointed business manager Dr Tohme Tohme had fired all the staff at the Beverly Hills property and at a second rented home in Las Vegas.
'I want to know how Michael died, and then, at 11pm on the day he dies, all the staff are fired?' she asks rhetorically. 'That raised my suspicions.'
When she arrived at the house with her manager and close friend Jeffre Phillips, new security guards were in place.
She says: 'I could smell and sense my brother everywhere. I could smell his favourite cologne, Black Orchid by Tom Ford. I went into his bedroom. There was a shirt discarded on the floor.'
She says Michael was taken to hospital from Dr Murray's bedroom, across a large hall from his own. 'Michael walked from his room to Dr Murray's room. What happened in there we don't know. He ended up alone in the room with the doctor.'
Shortly after midday, the doctor ran downstairs and screamed at bodyguard Alberto Alvarez to call the emergency services.
La Toya says: 'No one was allowed upstairs apart from Dr Murray and the children. Paris has since told me that even they were not allowed in that room when Dr Murray was giving Michael his "oxygen".
Murray, said La Toya, initially gave the star CPR on the soft surface of the bed before moving him to the ground, on the instruction of the 911 emergency operator who told him the procedure needed to be conducted on a hard surface.
She says: 'Why, if this man was a cardiologist, was my brother on the bed? Michael was dead in that room. I was told the doctor kept telling everyone he was alive, but
Brother Michael saw him and said it was obvious he was dead. There were oxygen tanks along the wall next to the dresser. There was a metal stand with a cord hanging down. The police had already been in the house and had removed all the drugs and whatever bag was hanging there.'
Diprivan, when administered in hospital, is always given with oxygen. La Toya admits her brother had a prescription drug problem which the family believes began after he damaged his back in an on-stage accident during the Jacksons' 1984 Victory tour.
But she insists she believes he was 'clean' in preparation for the O2 shows. 'He had just been to England on a cleanse and he was drinking juices and being pure. He had cleaned everything out of his system ready to do the concerts in London.
But Michael never wanted to do 50 shows. He agreed to do ten and then the promoters and those around him added more and more shows because they were selling out.
'It's impossible even for a healthy person to do that many shows. Michael was fragile.
He always wanted to believe the best of people. But he was meek. In the last few months, he became isolated. I believe the staff were given strict instructions that if any of the family called, not to tell him. And if any of the family came by, not to let them in.
Those people around him didn't care about Michael the man. They were interested in Michael the cash cow.
'Michael didn't keep a close eye on his finances. A lot of people made a lot of money out of Michael. The house he was renting at the end is a classic example. It would cost £15,000 a month to rent but he was charged £60,000 a month because he was Michael Jackson.'
'As a family, we tried to get involved. We wanted to stage an intervention. But we couldn't get near Michael. I knew something terrible was going to happen.
'I believe he was cut off from the real world and the drugs were a way [for his hangers-on] to get in there. They got him hooked on drugs. He was pure and clean and then drugs came back into his system. I think it shocked his system so much it killed him.'
She says the family will file a civil lawsuit against anyone they believe responsible, as well as pushing for police to serve criminal charges:
'I am going to get down to the bottom of this. I am not going to stop until I find out who is responsible. Why did they keep the family away? It's not about money. I want justice for Michael. I won't rest until I find out what - and who - killed my brother.'
Trawling through Michael's personal possessions at his house, La Toya was shocked when she saw his work schedule: 'They worked him so hard. There was no breathing room.
Every hour was packed with costume fittings, vocal lessons, rehearsals. Even Paris noticed. She told me, "They worked Daddy too hard. They worked him so hard."
'When someone is fragile you can't keep them going like that. A lot of people are responsible for this, directly or indirectly. They told him, "The shows are booked, the tickets are sold."
And Michael being Michael, he didn't want to let down his fans.
'His kids made him so happy but he didn't have any real friends. His problem was he didn't trust people. In the end, he died a lonely man surrounded by this shadowy entourage.'
While Michael regularly kept up to £1million in cash inside his home, La Toya says none was found. Nor was any of his vast collection of jewellery: 'Someone went in there and did a good job. So many people were in the house before I got there.'
In the hours after Michael died, his sister Janet was so worried, she put her own security team in place inside the house. The sisters plan to move all of Michael's possessions into storage to safeguard them for his children.
La Toya says the children are coping well. They are with Katherine and nanny Grace Rwaramba who turned up for a day 'and has been there ever since.' La Toya says, however, she is 'highly suspicious' of the nanny's motives.
'The family has mixed feelings about her,' she says. 'Mother says she wants to be with the kids but I warned her to be careful. It's not like the children like or dislike her. They like everyone. Mother is gullible and feels sorry for her.'
She says reports that Grace was Michael's girlfriend are false. 'I heard Grace liked Michael but he didn't like her. He let her go last Christmas. I have a lot of questions about Grace. She was instrumental in keeping the family away. All of a sudden she is back, listening and watching the family. I think her behaviour is odd.'
La Toya says her focus is now on the children. All three are said to be well-behaved but innocent of the wider world. They don't watch television. They are tutored at home and are only allowed to watch Disney movies. The family have hired a grief counsellor for them.
She added: 'Michael always said he was a single parent. But he was a very good parent. It was funny seeing him changing nappies, because you never imagine him that way. But Michael was a hands-on dad. He was quite an expert. They are happy children, despite what has happened.
'Paris wants to be an entertainer. Prince Michael, the oldest, is assertive. I see such sadness there. He cried at the hospital but hasn't cried since. He has become the little man of the family. Blanket is the baby. He is very funny, a real prankster like his father.'
Although the memorial was watched by millions on TV, the most poignant farewell came last Monday night at Forest Lawn Cemetery, where the family had an open coffin viewing.
She says Paris bought a cheap 'mood' necklace - a metal heart which changes colour when it touches the skin. 'The heart is in two pieces. Paris told me, "I want one half to go to Daddy and I will wear the other half for ever."
'She carefully wrapped it around his wrist. She said; "Daddy this is for you." Then she placed it on him and said, "On Daddy, it will be blue because he is cold. On me, it's purple."
'She got some coloured stones and she decorated his body. She said, "He's so cold, he is so cold." His lips were slightly swollen from the autopsy. She asked, "Who did that to Daddy?" I told her it was because he had passed.
'I put one of his sequined gloves in there. And a pair of his favourite sunglasses.'
Michael Bush, Michael's long-time costumier, made an elaborate cream jacket decorated with pearls and beads. He was dressed in black trousers with a large gold belt with two cherubs on either side of the buckle. Karen Faye, his make-up artist, applied cosmetics to his face.
La Toya says: 'I am so proud of Paris for speaking at the memorial service. When Stevie Wonder was performing she whispered to me, "Auntie La Toya, I want to go up there and say something about Daddy."
I couldn't just walk her up on stage but at the end, when we were singing We Are The World, she said, "I'm too shy now" but then changed her mind and said those words about loving her Daddy that everyone saw.
'The boys didn't want to come to the viewing, but Paris was insistent. She wears Michael T-shirts every day and the walls of her room are covered with posters and pictures of her daddy. She still writes him letters every day, sweet lovely letters about how much she loves him.
'Her letters are brilliant. When you read them you cry. She loves the light on stage. She is always singing Daddy's songs and she is special. She has it - the X factor.'
La Toya says she was shocked by the emergence of a 2002 will stating Diana Ross should be a back-up to Jackson matriarch Katherine as the children's guardian.
She says: 'Michael always told us that he wanted his eldest sister Rebbie Jackson to look after the children. Rebbie had a nice family, which Michael loved. He told many family members that she was his choice. We believe there is another will which will emerge. He updated his wills almost every five years, so we expect one to come out from 2007.
As the question of the children's future remains unresolved, Debbie Rowe, the birth mother of the two eldest, is expected to begin her fight for custody of the children in the Los Angeles courts next week.
La Toya dismisses her: 'These are not Debbie's kids. They don't even know she's their mother. Like everyone else in his life, she was motivated by money. She has always said she's not their mother.
'My understanding is that she will now go after the kids. I know a few things about Debbie and I will prevent that from happening.
'Debbie has only seen the children a handful of times. Michael never introduced her as their mother.'
She confirmed that Blanket, the youngest, was created from a donor egg and donated sperm: 'Michael didn't want to know who the biological parents were.
'They took eggs from a donor and I believe the sperm came from one of five donors picked from a book. Michael didn't know who the mother and father were. I don't know who carried the child and if the surrogate knew whose child she was carrying.
'Those children were his greatest joy. He was a superstar but the only people who loved him unconditionally were the children.'
She fears for her mother, Katherine now 79: 'She's the rock of the family, but I'm the glue that holds it all together. Everyone is hurting. I've hardly slept since this started. I am frightened the stress will hurt Mother.
'Michael knew he was never going to be a grey-haired old man. He
didn't want to grow old. He told me he thought he would die in his 50s. He said he would get married at 45 and die around 50. He had a gut feeling.'
Despite the intense pressures, La Toya is convinced Michael had much to look forward to. He was trying to buy a £40million house in Las Vegas from the Sultan of Brunei, which was to have been his base after the O2 shows ended.
He was reading books on directing movies. 'The first one was to be a
horror film called Thriller,' she said. 'He had already designed the poster. He was going to retire from music. This Is It really was the end. He didn't want to perform any more.'
Ironically, the extended Jackson family, which has been badly fractured throughout the years, now appear to be united in their grief and determination to seek the truth about Michael's death.
As La Toya puts it: 'I'm doing what I can to find out how he died. If he died of a drug overdose, then I want to find who supplied him the drugs and who first introduced him to them. We've still not had a chance to speak to Dr Murray about Michael's final days. I need to know what he may have seen or heard.
'Michael didn't have to die. We are all mourning his loss, more than anyone can ever know. But we are also determined to get to the bottom of what happened to him.'