Local News in Brief : Woman in Car Trunk Died of Asphyxiation

The death of a 22-year-old Reseda woman, whose nude body was found in her car in Burbank earlier this month, was ruled a homicide Friday by the Los Angeles County coroner’s office, which concluded that she died of asphyxia. Non-lethal levels of cocaine and alcohol were in her bloodstream, coroner’s spokesman William Gold said.

The woman, Mary S. Duggan, had a “moderate” amount of cocaine in her blood and a 0.11% blood-alcohol level, Gold said, adding that Duggan died because of an “airway obstruction.”

Burbank police discovered Duggan’s body in the early morning hours of June 9 under newspapers in the hatchback of her 1980 Ford Mustang in a parking lot near the intersection of Glenoaks Boulevard and Cohasset Street.

Burbank Police Detective Craig Ratliff, who is heading the investigation, said police have no suspects in the case and declined to say whether Duggan died in the car or elsewhere.