CA - Body of local doctor found in chimney flue

[Joe Friday]

Body of local doctor found in chimney flue


The badly decomposed body of a woman found in a chimney flue has been identified as a local doctor, authorities said Monday.

Dr. Jacquelyn Kotarac had been missing since last week, a day after she went to the house of a man whom she had been dating, Bakersfield police Sgt. Mary DeGeare said. Kotarac went to the man’s house in the 4300 block of La Mirada Drive Wednesday evening and was reported missing by her office staff Thursday morning, DeGeare said.

Snipped

http://www.bakersfield.com/news/loc...-to-be-that-of-local-doctor?utm_source=co2hog

 

[Belinda]

How very bizarre. She was apparently trying to gain access to the house and got stuck. Wonder why she was so desperate to get into the house if the man wasn't there?

 

[Patty G]

I do hope LE investigates this one a little bit more. It's much easier to just break a window then climb up on a roof to jump down through a chimney flute. If he wasn't home, then there was no reason to try and get in. I'd like to know how she got on the roof in the first place.

Something is just not right with this story.

 

[tapu]

My god.... When did she realize she was stuck til death? And how long was the wait?

 

[Nova]

I do hope LE investigates this one a little bit more. It's much easier to just break a window then climb up on a roof to jump down through a chimney flute. If he wasn't home, then there was no reason to try and get in. I'd like to know how she got on the roof in the first place.

Something is just not right with this story.

I agree. I've lived in Southern CA for 25 years and while fireplaces are common (it gets cold here at night), few are big enough for a person to climb down. It would never occur to me to try.

Of course, maybe this house had a huge fireplace and wide chimney, but how many women (or men, for that matter) want to spend the hours/days it would take to get the soot off after a successful entry?

 

[tapu]

I don't think that worrying about soot would have stopped her at that point. This reminds me of that astronaut babe with the obsession.

Yet another reason not to fall in love again. It seems like the love-obsession can whack out anyone.

 

[Joe Friday]

I do hope LE investigates this one a little bit more. It's much easier to just break a window then climb up on a roof to jump down through a chimney flute. If he wasn't home, then there was no reason to try and get in. I'd like to know how she got on the roof in the first place.

Something is just not right with this story.

BBM

Apparently the man was home when she arrived but he slipped away unnoticed while she was trying to gain access to the house.

The man, however, didn’t want to see her and left the home unnoticed to avoid a confrontation as she tried to force her way inside. http://www.bakersfield.com/news/loc...-to-be-that-of-local-doctor?utm_source=co2hog

There is also a conflicting report as to when she was reported missing by her office staff.

This media outlet printed that she was reported missing on Thursday and found on Sunday.

The doctor’s office reported Kotarac missing on Thursday and her body discovered in the chimney at the home of her boyfriend, William Moodie on Sunday. http://www.cbs47.tv/news/local/stor...e-Chimney/OtmucJdtX0ePdEIcTY0E6g.cspx?rss=153

But in the video from the same news agency they say she was reported missing on Wednesday.

In the same printed article as above it is said that the man was in the Netherlands at the time of the death.

Moodie was in the Netherlands at the time of the death.

So this guy ducks out of the house with enough luggage to go to the Netherlands while she is trying to get in the same house? Unless she was in the backyard and he slipped out of the garage in his car from the front and already had the car loaded up with his luggage I would think he would have had to return for his luggage needed to go to the Netherlands. What is the possibility that he maybe returned after he thought she was gone to gather his items. If he returned wouldn't he have heard this lady (most likely screaming) stuck in the chimney? Did he leave her there to die?

Your right. Something is not right. I'm wondering if William Moodie is back in the USA and has been questioned yet.

 

[mysterygirl]

This is just sad and bizarre!

The article does say that all evidence shows that she voluntarily went on the roof and tried to get in but---I don't know.

 

[grayjay]

Something besides the smell of badly decomposed body here. Something else just not right. I hope they have an autopsy. If he's telling the truth, then there must me more evidence of her stalking ways and maybe some people who can comment on her state of mind. Too bizarre otherwise, I'd say.

 

[Joe Friday]

Something besides the smell of badly decomposed body here. Something else just not right. I hope they have an autopsy. If he's telling the truth, then there must me more evidence of her stalking ways and maybe some people who can comment on her state of mind. Too bizarre otherwise, I'd say.

BBM

I'm sure that an autopsy will be preformed. I would speculate that she died from asphyxiation from the constriction caused by being inside the chimney flue. She most likely panicked when she became lodged causing increased or rapid breathing and suffocated from not being able to expand her chest enough to allow sufficient air into her lungs. Thus causing her to pass out from lack of oxygen and eventually death.

Perhaps if WM returned home after leaving to gather his luggage for his trip she was already dead.

Entomology may play a big factor in this case to determine exactly when her death accorded to determine if WM might be involved. But I can't see someone carrying a dead body onto a roof top to drop them down a chimney as a way of disposing of a body. Putting her in his car and driving away would be much easier. Not to mention trying to stuff a live or dead person into a chimney in broad daylight would create some attention.

 

[SunnieRN]

This is truly bizarre and very sad!

 

[sistersleuth]

Jeez, she really gives a new meaning to obsessed.

 

[Joe Friday]

Autopsy Results For Bakersfield Doctor Found In Chimney Flue

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. -- The doctor who was found in a chimney flue died as a result of mechanical asphyxia and the manner of death is an accident, according to the Kern County Coroner's Office.

Snipped

Kotarac first tried to get into the house with a shovel, then climbed a ladder to the roof last Wednesday night, removed the chimney cap and slid feet first down the flue, DeGeare said.

While she was trying to break in, the man she was pursuing escaped unnoticed from another exit "to avoid a confrontation," authorities said.

Snipped

Kotarac died as a result of mechanical asphyxia and the manner of death was an accident, according to the Kern County Coroner's Office.

Ray Pruitt, PIO with the Kern County Sheriff's Department, said that this means her chest compressed to the point that she was no longer able to breathe.

http://www.turnto23.com/news/24832021/detail.html

 

[Joe Friday]

So her belongings (purse and other items) are found in the neighbors yard and they don't report that to the police?

A quick search of the exterior of the house would have turned up the ladder. Even though I would assume it would have been to late at that point.

Neighbors of the house on La Mirada Drive were shocked.

“We never expected she was in the chimney,” said Victor Munoz, who lives next door to the house where the body was removed.

Munoz said a purse and other belongings had been found in his neighbor’s back yard earlier in the week. Munoz said Moodie had dated a woman that Munoz knew as “Jackie.”

He said he never heard the two fighting or noticed anything else indicating there had been a bad breakup.

Munoz said neighbors of Moodie had been on the lookout for the woman, thinking she might may have been abducted because her belongings were found outdoors and she was missing.

http://www.bakersfield.com/news/loc...-to-be-that-of-local-doctor?utm_source=co2hog

 

[LaLaw2000]

I do hope LE investigates this one a little bit more. It's much easier to just break a window then climb up on a roof to jump down through a chimney flute. If he wasn't home, then there was no reason to try and get in. I'd like to know how she got on the roof in the first place.

Something is just not right with this story.

That is exactly what I thought the minute I read the article this morning, Patty.

I just cannot see a woman crawling up on the roof and attempting to come down the chimney like Santa Claus. I also cannot see a guy struggling with the weight of a dead woman getting the body up on the roof to stuff down the chimney. How was this not seen by someone if either one of them were on the roof?

Crime Scene Investigators will be able to tell just what happened, I hope. Meantime, I just have to wonder if this boyfriend pushed her body up into the chimney. There should be plenty of evidence of how it happened. I simply cannot imagine that someone stuck in a chimney would not have been yelling for help. She was a doctor and would have known she may die if she did not scream for help.

JMO

 

[porkchop]

I don't see anything strange about the story. In the video report they said that she was trying to get in and the man slipped out to avoid her and stayed someplace else for the night. When she couldn't get in she used a service ladder that was attached to the house to get on the roof then she tried to go down the chimney. The guy came back home the next day and found her purse outside and her car was still in front of his house and she was nowhere around so he called the cops. Then he got his things together and went on his trip. On that Sunday she was found by his house sitter.

She was a person that was obsessed with this guy and wasn't thinking correctly and did something stupid. Both men and women do stuff like this all the time.

http://www.turnto23.com/video/24818831/index.html

 

[LaLaw2000]

Well, I do find it to be a strange story and something that doesn't happen everyday.

JMO

 

[Missizzy]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100901...jA3luX21vc3RfcG9wdWxhcgRzbGsDY29wc2NhbGlmZG9j

Cops: Calif doctor gets stuck in chimney, dies

"A doctor involved in an "on-again, off-again" relationship apparently tried to force her way into her boyfriend's home by sliding down the chimney, police said Tuesday. Her decomposing body was found there three days later.

Dr. Jacquelyn Kotarac, 49, first tried to get into the house with a shovel, then climbed a ladder to the roof last Wednesday night, removed the chimney cap and slid feet first down the flue, Bakersfield police Sgt. Mary DeGeare said...."


more at link

 

[cluciano63]

It is very strange but it does seem to be what she did...and of course the neighbors had no reason to think she had gone down the chimney...this is about as strange and tragic as it gets, what a horrible way to die. No man is worth all that, surely...

 

[Missizzy]

Looks like Dr. Kotarac was popular with her patients 2009 in a Readers' Poll in Bakersfield. How sad that she listened to her patients but not to loved ones and friends in her life.

http://www.bakersfield.com/entertainment/local/x41286866/Readers-select-their-favorite-doctors

Readers select their favorite doctors

"Dr. Jacquelyn Kotarac, is a physician whose excellence is matched by few. She has been a godsend to my wife and I. She is extremely knowledgeable and somehow keeps up-to-date on all areas of her practice. She is always upbeat and pleasant as is all of her staff. If she is unsure of something, she is not afraid to say so but is always able to quickly research the topic and find the answer. She always spends enough time with us to be sure to get an accurate diagnosis and answer all our questions...."

"....There are many able physicians in town but Bakersfield has never been known as the mecca of medical science. Dr. Kotarac is somewhat of an oasis in the middle of the desert."

and

"Jacquelyn Kotarac is the greatest ... Why, you might ask? Because she always listens, I mean really listens, and will spend all the time you need. Very unusual with the doctors of today! She is the greatest."

more at link