MO MO - Lynn Horstmann, 40, pregnant, St Louis, 18 July 2014

[wfgodot]

Daily Mail:

Suicide, murder or a sex game gone wrong? Mystery remains as to why pregnant social
worker, 40, was found dead with a plastic bag around her head in her new apartment

• The body of Lynn Horstmann, 40, a pregnant social worker, found decomposing in apartment
• She was found face down in her bed with a plastic trash bag cinched around her neck
• Police dubbed her death as 'suspicious' but have yet to say whether it was murder or suicide
• There are almost no clues in a case that has lasted a year

St. Louis Post-Dispatch:

Mystery of St. Louis woman's death continues to baffle a year later

---
One year later, the mysterious circumstances of Horstmann’s death are mired in deepening suspicions and a dearth of solid evidence. Family and friends wonder if risky sexual behavior played a role in her death, or her relationships, including one with a married man who may have been the father of her unborn child.
---
Pathologists listed the official cause of death as suffocation but could not determine whether it was a homicide, suicide or accident. City police, too, appear unable to classify the case. Various records refer to the case as a “non-criminal incident,” a “suspicious death” and a murder.
---

Story and pictures at the links.

 

[wfgodot]

A bit more from the P-D piece:

Some of Horstmann’s friends and family firmly believe she was murdered, and point to a series of mysteries they say aren’t explained by suicide or accident: Her mail apparently picked up after she was dead. Her cellphone and debit card missing from her home. Her pet guinea pigs and their cage also gone from her home, and the discovery that someone had left them outside an animal shelter in the middle of the night.
---
They say they aren’t getting information about the investigation and don’t think police are doing enough. And with more than 180 homicides in St. Louis since her death, some of Horstmann’s relatives think police either botched or neglected the case to keep it off the books.

 

[Kip]

Without having read the details of this case, my vote is for murder.

I don't think a social worker would participate in sex practices involving asphyxiation that could reduce her baby's oxygen supply.

I could see a suicidal person leaving their pets at the humane society. But it makes no sense that she would get rid of her phone and debit card before committing suicide.

Is it known who the father of the baby is?

 

[wfgodot]

Without having read the details of this case, my vote is for murder.

I don't think a social worker would participate in sex practices involving asphyxiation that could reduce her baby's oxygen supply.

I could see a suicidal person leaving their pets at the humane society. But it makes no sense that she would get rid of her phone and debit card before committing suicide.

Is it known who the father of the baby is?

The police left the hamsters and cage. It took them awhile to remember doing so, evidently.

But it turns out police had dropped them off there, a health department spokesman told the Post-Dispatch this month. Officers apparently left the cage there a day after Horstmann was found dead. Detectives had misinformed the family.

The P-D article also details the still mysterious question about where the mail went.

When Hoopes got back to town, someone had taken Horstmann’s mail from Hoopes’ box. A detective told Hoopes he didn’t know anything about the missing mail.

“That was kind of spooky,” Hoopes said.

Whole long article worth reading.

 

[bluesneakers]

"Some of her friends wonder if it may her death may have been as a result of a sex game, gone wrong.
Se she had occasionally talked about erotic asphyxiation, a fetish where the brain is deliberately deprived of oxygen to increase arousal."

Come on now. Who among us hasn't?

I vote murder too. Talk to the guy with the wife and three kids, the one who assaulted her.

 

[wfgodot]

Suicide. Suicide and sloppy police work.

 

[LadyL]

if she refused to get an abortion, why then would she kill that baby & herself?

she had a 14 year-old daughter who was coming to live with her

 

[wfgodot]

Belleville News-Democrat:

Lynn Horstmann (1974 - 2014)
Obituary

 

[wfgodot]

if she refused to get an abortion, why then would she kill that baby & herself?

she had a 14 year-old daughter who was coming to live with her

The blood alcohol content is perhaps a clue.

 

[wendybtn]

Suicide. Suicide and sloppy police work.

Yeah. She was way too wild at 40, taking chances that she should have left behind 10-15 years before. Plus, the stunted, magical thinking, "a new baby and a high-schooler and a new apartment, everything will be great." She was old enough to put more thought into it than that.

 

[bluesneakers]

Is no one going with sex game gone wrong?

 

[ellabella]

I'm not simply for the fact that if she is well-educated, she's smart enough to know about safe sexual kink practices. Being somewhat involved in the kink community, and knowning quite a few people who enjoy breath play(myself included) We also know that a)you don't play with things that endanger the life of a fetus when pregnant, certainly that would include oxygen deprivation and b) not using bags/etc. Sure there are people who will, but I just don't see it. I don't know a single person who would ever use a bag for this.

Of course it's possible, I just don't think it's probable.

Personally, I lean towards suicide, the sudden realization of what all was happening in her life and where she was. However I do think the missing items is pretty hinky. but who knows. Maybe she lost her debit card recently?