Woman dies while stuck in lover's chimney
A woman's decomposing body has been found wedged inside the chimney
of her lover's home after she tried to sneak into his house.
Dr Jacquelyn Kotarac, 49, scaled a ladder to the roof, removed the
chimney cap and slid down the flue of the property in Bakersfield,
California.
|
Dr Jacquelyn Kotarac died of asphyxiation |
The woman, who had an 'on-again, off again' relationship with the
man, had gone to the house on Wednesday last week, police said.
But the man refused to let her in and escaped unnoticed from the
house 'to avoid a confrontation', police added.
Dr Kotarac is believed to have been stuck in the chimney for three
days.
Her body was discovered by a house-sitter who noticed 'an odour and
fluids' coming from the fireplace, police said.
The house-sitter and her son found the woman's body wedged about two
feet above the top of the interior fireplace opening.
Firefighters spent five hours dismantling the chimney and flue from
the outside of the property to extract the body.
The man's identity has been revealed in media reports as William
Moodie, 58, the owner of a petroleum engineering company.
"She made an unbelievable error in judgement and nobody understands
why, and unfortunately she's passed away," Moodie told the Associated
Press.
"She had her issues, she had her demons, but I never lost my respect
for her." He would not comment on the circumstances that led to her
death but described her as a "superb internist who often provided
service and medication free of charge to her patients".
Dr Kotarac ran a medical practice seeing as many as 200 patients a
week, reports said.
Her office staff reported her missing when she failed to turn up to
work.
Bakersfield coroner's office said Dr Kotarac died of asphyxiation and
concluded the death was an accident. |
