[ButThreeLeftsDo]

This poor woman should not have been travelling alone.

[BlessedBeGod]

Related thread:

Autopsy: Gotbaum Died Of 'Asphyxia By Hanging' (alcohol and pills a factor)

[darkwing104]

Authorities have said that Gotbaum, who was handcuffed and shackled to a bench in an airport holding room, may have accidentally strangled herself. Police have said they followed proper procedures when dealing with her.

Is chaining someone unsupervised in a hold cell proper procedure. Isn't someone under arrest the responsibility of the arresting officer?

[NemoDog]

I too have been compelled to stangle myself while on some lay overs...especially those lasting more than two hours.

[rbg81]

I am not sure the police were at fault here. By all accounts, she was one sick, out of control woman. While there may be a few instances of someone dying in this manner, they are likely very, very rare. In the end, you can’t protect someone from themselves.

Her family should have escorted here to the treatment facility. Also, why go to Phoenix—were there no detox facilities in NY?

[Mikey_1962]

Her age alone eliminates her from the “Darwin Award” competition

[radar101]

http://www.azcentral.com/12news/pdf/gotbaumautopsyedit.pdf

http://www.azcentral.com/12news/pdf/gotbaumtoxedit.pdf

[SuziQ]

From one of the links at the site: "The body shows signs of a struggle," Manning said. "There are ligature marks, and some of those ligature marks match the chain that they used to chain her to the bench."

I would think that her body WOULD be bruised if she was going through all kinds of contortions to try to get out of the handcuffs. Doesn't surprise me in the least, though this report makes it sound like the family is going to claim that the officers beat her to calm her down. If she were, in fact, drunk, and under the influence of drugs, some action that would hurt a person not in that condition, and cause them to stop, would not faze the drunk or drugged person.

[jonrick46]

We should wait for the autopsy conducted by pathologist Dr. Cyril Wecht before we make any conclusions about the “official autopsy.” The big question is how Carol Gotbaum was able to get her hands around in front of her. The only answer I can see is she didn’t. It is my theory that the airport holding cell guards brought the handcuffs around to the front and re-handcuffed her, with a chain attached to the handcuffs and a bench. Then they wrapped the chain real tight around her neck. When they found that she died from such a tactic, they re-wrapped the chain in such a way to make it look like she did it herself.

Gotbaum family lawyer Michael Manning said. “There is a very tight relationship between law-enforcement and medical-examiner offices everywhere in the country, including Phoenix.”