This has to be the most bizarre story I've read in awhile.:eek:
Coroner: Doctor Suffocated In Chimney
Woman Trapped While Trying To Get Into Home
POSTED: 1:45 pm EDT September 1, 2010
UPDATED: 5:46 pm EDT September 1, 2010
BAKERSFIELD, Calif. -- A doctor whose decomposing body was found in the narrow chimney of her boyfriend's house died of asphyxiation when her lungs couldn't expand to breathe, authorities said Wednesday.
Dr. Jacquelyn Kotarac was trapped while trying to get into the Bakersfield home on Aug. 25, police said.
"The pressure being placed on the chest wouldn't allow her lungs to expand and she suffocated," Kern County sheriff-coroner spokesman Ray Pruitt said about the autopsy.
The coroner's office also ruled the death was accidental. Foul play was not suspected.
Police said Kotarac, a 49-year-old internist, wanted to confront a man with whom she had an "on-again, off-again" relationship.
Her corpse was discovered Saturday when a house-sitter noticed an odor and fluids coming from the fireplace.
People in the home had noticed nothing until then, police said.
Kotarac was reported missing Thursday when she failed to show up for work, Bakersfield police Sgt. Mary DeGeare said.
The night before, she tried to get into the house with a shovel then climbed a ladder to the roof, removed the chimney cap and slid down feet first. police said.
Meanwhile, the man she sought left unnoticed to avoid a confrontation and slept elsewhere that night, authorities said.
Firefighters spent five hours tearing up the chimney to extract the body that was wedged about two feet above the top of the interior fireplace opening.
Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten
