Coroner Unable to Classify Christensen Death

The circumstances surrounding the death of Duayne D. Christensen, who owned the failed North America Savings & Loan Assn., remain a mystery, as the Orange County coroner’s office on Monday officially declined to classify his death in a freeway crash as either an accident or a suicide.

A two-month inquiry into Christensen’s psychological profile left coroner’s investigators with enough evidence to support either finding, but not enough to tip the scales either way, said James D. Beisner, deputy county coroner. Instead, the death certificate will carry the legend, “undetermined,” he said.

Because of a backlog in the office, a written report on the coroner’s findings is “weeks or months away,” Beisner said.

Christensen died early on Jan. 16, when his 1986 Jaguar crashed into a bridge support on the Corona del Mar Freeway. His Santa Ana savings institution was seized by state regulators about nine hours later due to insolvency and was turned over to the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corp. a week later.

Within days after the takeover, regulators uncovered what they called the biggest fraud ever perpetrated on an S&L; in the state, one that the FSLIC now estimates at more than $40 million and that led to criminal investigations by the FBI and the state attorney general’s office.

The most immediate impact of the coroner’s ruling will be on Prudential Life Insurance Co. of America’s investigation into a $10-million policy it issued on Christensen’s life last year.

The owner and beneficiary of the policy is Janet F. McKinzie, who was Christensen’s business manager and confidante.

McKinzie--who also is named as Christensen’s sole heir in his will and is the sole beneficiary of his trust, both of which were created three days before he died--has been sued by the FSLIC, which claims that she helped Christensen mastermind the fraud on North America Savings.

Prudential, whose officers will not discuss the life insurance policy, has been trying to determine if Christensen committed suicide or if he filed any false information that would allow the company to deny what one agent believes would be the company’s biggest payoff on a life policy.

The FSLIC has secured a court order freezing McKinzie’s assets and plans to attach any proceeds from the policy. The agency claims that the money is owed the S&L; by McKinzie for her alleged fraudulent activities. The FSLIC also claims that it is the rightful owner of any proceeds because McKinzie used North America S&L; funds to pay for the policy.

Under Medical Care

McKinzie, who had been in a Sacramento hospital under psychiatric and medical care after Christensen’s death, has returned to the plush Newport Beach home he deeded to her in 1984, according to one of her lawyers, who said she still is recuperating and remains under medical care.

Richard (Racehorse) Haynes of Houston, lead attorney for McKinzie, said he believes that McKinzie is entitled to the insurance money. “I would think the coroner should yield to presumption that it’s an accident,” he said, adding that “of course, there’ll be a lawsuit” if Prudential refuses to pay on the policy.

“I’m sure the insurance company wants to list it as a suicide, and the family and others are out there trying to build a case for an accident,” Beisner said. “There’s quite a bit of evidence on both sides.”

Evidence indicating suicide, he said, included the facts that Christensen was “losing his empire” and that regulators would uncover fake deposits and misappropriated money. Christensen had faced a noon deadline on Jan. 16 to come up with $6 million in new capital to stop regulators from seizing North America Savings.

“On the other side of the coin, there was the idea that the guy had faced this crisis before,” Beisner said. “And we were not able to find anybody who said he had mentioned suicide or felt hopeless in what he did.”

At least one of the motorists who saw Christensen speed by him on the freeway that morning told investigators that the one-time Westminster dentist looked at him with a “wild look” in his eyes. But Beisner questioned that description because Christensen and the motorist were “total strangers.”

Christensen’s Jaguar, speeding north on the freeway at up to 75 m.p.h., weaved off the roadway, back on and off again at a slight curve near the Bristol Street overpass and then sped 400 feet straight down a wide, dirt median before slamming into the bridge support.

In its psychological profile, coroner’s investigators talked to Christensen’s doctors, friends and associates to find out his medical condition and his state of mind up to the time of the car crash.

Gray Pallor to Face

One North America S&L; employee, for instance, told The Times that for a few months before the crash, Christensen’s face had a gray pallor to it, that he appeared docile, lost weight and sometimes lost his concentration, forgetting, for instance, what he was talking about in mid-conversation. That employee was interviewed by the coroner’s office.

Beisner said his office had not been able to talk with McKinzie or with Christensen’s former wife, Dorene, whom he divorced after becoming involved with McKinzie.

Investigators were able to talk to David Christensen of Ann Arbor, Mich., one of Christensen’s three children, but Beisner said the son was unable to provide any information that could help them.

California Highway Patrol investigators could find nothing mechanically wrong with the Jaguar, and the coroner’s office could not find any other contributing factor to the crash, such as the presence of drugs or recurrence of heart problems that Christensen had suffered a year earlier.

“There are these kinds of situations all the time,” Beisner said about the coroner’s inability to classify the death as a suicide or an accident. “We can’t play God, and nobody asks us to.”