On Sept. 17 Daniel's body was taken to a Nassau funeral home to be prepared for return to the U.S. Photo by: JESSICA ROBERTSON / AP
What Happened to Daniel?| Anna Nicole Smith
Friends and family struggling to make sense of Daniel's loss recall a polite, quiet young man, far from a party animal, who loved video games like Mortal Kombat, Japanese animé cartoons and Ben Stiller movies, particularly Zoolander. "He never missed saying, 'Please' and 'Thank you,'" recalls friend Chelsey Leon, 17, who attended the same private school as Daniel until 10th grade. "He was really intelligent and well-spoken."

Not to mention devoted to his mother. "He did whatever his mom said, whether it be doing the dishes or laundry," says a family friend. "Come Friday or Saturday nights, he'd spend them watching movies with his mom and Howard Stern. They were glued together."

No wonder then that, as Smith prepares to bury her son (Stern has begun arrangements; a service is likely to take place in L.A.), those closest to her worry about how she will move ahead without Daniel beside her. "If she didn't have that baby right now, I wouldn't be surprised if she committed suicide to stop the pain she's in," says one. "I'm sure she wishes it could have been her and not him who died."

By Allison Adato. Linda Trischitta and Siobhan Morrissey in Nassau, Lorenzo Benet, Howard Breuer, Vicki Sheff-Cahan and Ken Lee in Los Angeles and Nicole Weisensee Egan in Pittsburgh