Police Believe Drug Overdose Killed Compton Student

As friends and family members expressed disbelief, San Diego police said Saturday that they believe that Lina Aldridge, 19, whose body was found in a car trunk in that border city, may have died of a cocaine overdose.

Police said they based that conclusion on statements by a 24-year-old man who attended Compton Community College with Aldridge and who was arrested Friday in connection with her death.

Roy Williams told police in Compton, where he had been held before his release Saturday, that Aldridge overdosed after the two had purchased cocaine in San Diego early Thursday, said San Diego Sgt. Ed Petrick.

Doesn’t Fit Image

But longtime acquaintances and relatives of Aldridge, describing her as a bright young woman who looked forward to becoming a teacher and attending law school, said reports of a drug overdose do not fit with the Lina Aldridge they knew.

“All I know is that the girl was an ideal student, an ideal citizen,” Compton Mayor Walter Tucker said Saturday. “If she was involved with cocaine, it would be the most surprising thing. I just can’t believe that.”

Tucker, who said he has known Aldridge for 16 years, employed Aldridge as a part-time receptionist in his dental office.

Aldridge’s boyfriend, Mike Watson, 22, said he believes that investigators needed to be more skeptical of Williams’ account.

‘She’s Not the Type’

“That’s what he’s telling them, but it’s not true,” Watson said. “She’s not from that type of family. Her cousins and aunts and uncles went to the best schools. Harvard, Columbia. They’re the type of family where that type of deal just doesn’t go down.”

At the Aldridge home in Compton, Steven Starks, a cousin, said of Lina: “She’s very, very bright and intelligent. A very caring person. I know she wasn’t off into any drugs and that kind of stuff.”

But Petrick said police believe Williams’ account. In Compton, Lt. Al Smith said Williams was released from custody Saturday and is no longer considered a suspect.

Aldridge’s body was discovered Friday by San Diego police officers stuffed inside the trunk of her car, which had been parked since Thursday on a busy downtown street.

Initially, police said the death was a homicide. Before Aldridge left home Wednesday night she told her family that she would return in 10 minutes, her relatives have said.

Put Body in Trunk

But police now believe that Aldridge and Williams drove to San Diego late Wednesday night to buy cocaine, Petrick said. When Aldridge collapsed and died of an overdose at the home of the man who had sold her cocaine, the dealer put her body into the car trunk, Petrick said.

Petrick refused to name the cocaine dealer and said he would not be charged in the case. “Unfortunately, this kind of thing is very common,” Petrick said. “All indications are that (Aldridge) did use cocaine.”

Complete results of an autopsy the San Diego County coroner’s office performed on Aldridge’s body Saturday will not be released until tissue and toxicology tests are finished in four weeks, said deputy coroner Charles Kelley.

But preliminary results from the autopsy on Aldridge’s body showed no signs of trauma, according to San Diego Homicide Detective Ron Phill. That finding, along with the account Williams gave to Compton police, led San Diego police investigators to believe Williams’ story, Phill said.

Greenwald reported from San Diego and Chazanov reported from Los Angeles.