Report: Car Headlights Suspect in Death of White House Adviser's Wife

Fox news ^ | Feb 9 2011 | Fox news

[crosslink]

Several sources familiar with the ongoing investigation tell WTOP fire and police investigators believe the radiator in Turton's 2008 BMW X5 was punctured when it rolled into a workbench. The halogen headlights, which emit a bluish light and illuminate the road better than conventional headlights, stayed on after the radiator was punctured.

[manc]

agreed I hate those headlights.
I have the rear view mirror which darkens the lights behind in my car but when you come towards those headlights they blind you

[Huck]

I HATE those things. Any time I encounter a car with them, I just turn my brights on to make it fair.

[MEG33]

AMEN!

[Protect the Bill of Rights]

Autopsy reults are pending would probably have been more accurate as she has been buried in North Carolina.

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Just as an aside the link below is her brother and his fiance’s wedding page. He was injured in a motorcyce crash this summer wth serious injuries.

http://www.wedpagedesigns.com/bios.asp?id=18053

Look at the picture on the home page. Behind his head there looks to be a cover on a wheelchair headrest. I wonder if he broke his neck? A quad? Her pose is not natural. She appears to be leaning towards him to accommodate his limitations.

That’s alot to hit one family in a short period of time.

[ltc8k6]

Inside a very tough composite assembly...

[Fishtalk]

This woman’s pulling out of some garage at 5 in the am. Suddenly the headlights spark the anti-freeze and burn the car up and, we assume but it isn’t clear, the driver?

Yes, that happens every day.

The tidbit about the victim having been knocked out in some fashion says it all.

For now, I really don’t think this is some kind of cover up.

As a True Crime afficiando and a speculator, I’d guess that this is some kind of lover/husband/wife crime. The early morn timeline is a clue. I’m not convinced that lobbyists must report to work around 6 in the am in DC.

They WOULD likely have to leave a lover’s house at the early hour. At which point an angry husband could be waiting to strike at his adultrous wife.

OR the lover and the victim had an argument, it got violent, he struck her over the head, perhaps killed her then, and had to figure out a way to dispose of the body.

It’s been apparent that this mishap did NOT happen at Ashley’s home...odd, at 5 am in the morn.

Welp my scenario is just a guess. But I don’t think that anybody’s covering this up. The release of the info about the victim’s body would NOT have happened if there was a huge coverup going on.

HOWEVER, just for conspiracy purposes, the DC police department could be leaking this info because they’re getting pressure from a mighty political force, such as the White House, just throwing it out there.

I mean, no autopsy report yet?

Intriguing crime...and make no mistake, it IS a crime.

People don’t burn up in their cars by pulling out of a garage. Antifreeze does not suddenly flare up to make us crispy critters. Those bright headlights are not known to be igniters of our vehicles.

Heh.

[9422WMR]

Okay, that is good.
I can’t believe the idiots even tried to pass this one off.
Car crashes into workbench in garage`, radiator punctured`,
antifreeze gets inside a cracked sealed zenon bulb (they are all in a sealed bulb, even the fancy blue ones) and ignites the ethylene glycol?
ON WHAT PLANET?
I know, she committed suicide by shooting herself with a bolt action rifle 6 times in the head????????
Pure BS, mega BS.

[phockthis]

thanks for the update

[DBrow]

"Antifreeze is flammable, although it catches fire at 240 degrees Fahrenheit"

Ethylene Glycol is indeed flammable, the 240F is the flash point (that's the point at which it puts out enough vapor for an ingition source to start it, not the point where it bursts into flame, 400C)
but in an automobile it is mixed 50-50 with water, to get the advantage of the eutectic at low temps and the raising of the boiling point when the car warms up.

This means that you probably can't get a pool of 50-50 coolant to ignite.

It is possible that if glycol-water were exposed to an ignition source as a fine mist, as from a tiny puncture, that the water would evaporate leaving a very tiny drop of glycol, which would be more sensitive to ignition than the pool used in a closed-cup flash point tester. In some race circuits, the use of glycol is banned due to mist flammability.

...................

"Combustible liquids in a spray or mist have been found to ignite at temperatures less than their flashpoint.7 Research on the ignition of mists indicates that droplets of less than 10 μm behave in a similar manner to a vapor of the same concentration.7,8 Droplets larger than 40 μm may ignite at concentrations below the Lower Flammability Limit (LFL) for an equivalent concentration of vapor.7,8 The potential for ignition of a solution of propylene glycol or glycerin and water is limited by the need to evaporate water from the solution prior to ignition.6,7"

www.nfpa.org/assets/files//PDF/Research/RFAntifreezeSprinklers.pdf

...............................

It sounds like a stretch, and if she were not a consultant to a company that just got a huge grant (don't remember details) and her husband did not work in the White House, the whole affair would be a curiosity, instead of another conspiracy.

[ltc8k6]

The ones you hate are almost certainly aftermarket. All of the factory ones have auto leveling systems for each light. When you turn them on, they are pointing at the ground, and you can see them rise up and self-level.

[Sooth2222]

"Those new headlights are a serious hazard and should be banned."

HID (xenon) headlights were introduced in 1991 for Europe, and in 1993 for US models. At the age of 20, they aren't exactly "new".

[Servant of the Cross]

There has been no news on this for about three weeks. Now this is the latest spin?! You could say this antifreeze/headlights concoction requires a "willing suspension of disbelief".

There is something very wrong about this lady's death and the MSM is AWOL. Where's NCIS when you need them? I do hope the truth comes out. Maybe we'll get BMW engineers involved now that the laughable spin is throwing stones at their automobile design.

[Girlene]

Ashley Turton’s suspicious death leaves probing questions
"Progress Energy lobbyist and ex-chief of staff to Representative Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), Ashley Westbrook Turton, opened the door of her BMW suburban utility vehicle a few minutes before 5 am on January 10. The 37-year old mother of three young children, including twin boys, and the wife of Dan Turton, President Obama’s chief liaison to the House of Representatives, was on her way to work. Later that day, an announcement would come from Duke Power that it was buying Progress Energy for $26 billion, creating the largest power utility in the United States.

Ashley Turton would never make it to work that day. Turton’s car was engulfed in flames after she turned the ignition. The Washington Metropolitan Police Department, which can always be counted on to come up with the best fiction any time there is a suspicious death with political implications, surmised that Turton’s car was involved in a “low-speed” crash in her garage with a work bench that triggered a chemical fire. But to top it all off, the police said an “unknown medical condition” was also likely involved in what was described as a “freaky” accident.

Turton’s short biography in the funeral service guide reads: “Ashley Westbrook Turton was born in Greensboro, NC; graduated from Cardinal Gibbons High School in Raleigh in 1991 and from North Carolina State University in 1997. After working for Gov. James B. Hunt in NC, Ashley came to Washington, DC, in April 2000 to work as director of communications for the Honorable Rosa DeLauro, and later became her chief of staff. Since 2007, she has been manager of Federal Affairs for Progress Energy Service Company.”"...................

[libertarian27]

The halogen headlights, which emit a bluish light and illuminate the road better than conventional headlights, stayed on after the radiator was punctured.

OK, So, where are the massive recalls of Halogen headlights?

[mad_as_he$$]

What a strung together crock of $hit.

[TankerKC]

Put me in the category of someone who finds those new bluish halogen headlights to be a road hazard to oncoming traffic.

There are the equivalent to driving with your brights on.

[maica]

f the radiator is damaged hitting the work bench, did this happened when she came home after closing the 14 billion dollar deal the night before? Did she pass out in the car? If so why did the husband say she got up early to catch a flight. If he saw her get up how on earth could he stand and watch the fire without going crazy.

&&&&&

We need the NCIS team to get in there and find the right answers. They can get the goods on a malevolent spouse in an hour!

[meyer]

BMW uses 40 year old Cuyahoga River water in their radiators!

LOL - As one who grew up in that area, I find this particularly humerous. :)

"Now the Lord can make you tumble
And the Lord can make you turn
And the Lord can make you overflow
But the Lord can't make you burn"

[treetopsandroofs]

“From the start, investigators have not suspected foul play.”

Yah, like when they tell you 10 minutes after a plane crash in NYC less than 2 months after 9/11 that it was an accident.

[mad_as_he$$]

I believe you would have to have it in a container and under some sort of pressure to get it to catch fire. It will evaporate long before 240F and waft away.