California doctor dies in ex-boyfriend’s chimney

LOS ANGELES - A California doctor has been found dead in a chimney where she apparently got stuck while trying to enter the house of her ex-boyfriend, according to media reports Wednesday.

The decomposing corpse of Jacquelyn Kotarac, 49, was found Saturday night in the Bakersfield, California home of William Moodie, a man with whom she had an intermittent relationship, Bakersfield police were quoted as saying by local TV channel KERO 23.

Police believe she had been stuck in the chimney for three days.

Moodie apparently left the house through another exit while Kotarac was trying to gain entry in order to avoid a confrontation, and then left on a business trip. Before trying to clamber down the chimney Kotarac had attempted to break into the house using a shovel, the report said.

A coroner’s report said that she died of mechanical asphyxia, meaning that her chest became so compressed that she could no longer breathe.