Mystery Deepens in Death of Honor Student

The mystery surrounding the death of a Compton College honors student found in the trunk of a car parked in downtown San Diego deepened Thursday as a coroner’s investigation determined she did not die of a cocaine overdose, as San Diego police had suggested.

But court records in Los Angeles County show that Lina Dolores Aldridge, 19, was undergoing drug-rehabilitation counseling for cocaine possession in the year leading up to her death.

Friends and relatives have maintained all along that Aldridge, a student leader at Compton College, did not die of a drug overdose. On Thursday, her aunt, Julia Aldridge, said the family “knew in the first place” that police were wrong in concluding that she died from cocaine.

The discovery that Aldridge had no cocaine in her body left police without any explanation for her death and without any proof of foul play.

Other Street Drugs Ruled Out

The San Diego County coroner’s office has already ruled out other common street drugs such as methamphetamine and PCP. Further toxicology tests for prescription and over-the-counter drugs will be completed by Monday, according to chief toxicologist Richard Shaw, but officials said it is possible those tests will be inconclusive.

Aldridge’s body, which authorities believe had been in the car trunk for as long as 18 hours, had partly decomposed, hindering pathologists in their investigation.

After the body was found last Friday, San Diego police speculated that she had gotten into trouble by associating with the wrong people.

They said she had last been seen in the company of Roy Williams, a star center on the Compton College basketball team, who reportedly told San Diego authorities that Aldridge overdosed after she snorted cocaine at the home of an unidentified drug dealer.

Although they first arrested and released him, police said that, because of the toxicology results, they will again question Williams.

Williams, 24, was taken into custody in Compton Friday, then released a day later. Compton and San Diego police have said that he is no longer a suspect, but San Diego Police Detective Bill Nulton said that his status could change.

“We would question (Williams’) credibility if he told us that she came down here and used cocaine and we didn’t find any evidence” of cocaine use, Nulton said.

Williams could not be reached for comment Thursday.

Police said they based their statements about Aldridge’s possible overdose on cocaine on statements made to them by Williams. He reportedly said the two had driven to San Diego, but that he left Aldridge at the house of an unidentified drug dealer. Nulton said other sources, whom he declined to identify, also told police Aldridge had been involved with drugs.

“We just didn’t make up this assumption,” Nulton said. “The possibility of a cocaine overdose didn’t just come out of the clear blue sky.”

Overdose Offered as Theory

Nulton stressed that the cocaine overdose was offered to the news media only as a theory and was never intended as a formal conclusion in the case.

Records in Inglewood Municipal Court show that Aldridge had been receiving counseling since last September.

Aldridge and a companion--identified only as Dexter Johnson--were arrested outside the Comfort Inn motel in Lennox last September, the court documents stated.

The couple had been stopped by police in the motel parking lot and a quarter of a gram of cocaine was discovered inside Johnson’s car. Aldridge told officers she was unaware of the cocaine, but probation officers recommended counseling.

Aldridge was placed in a yearlong drug-diversion program as part of a plea-bargaining agreement. Court records showed that she attended her last session only four days before her death.

Cut Off Associations

In a handwritten report to the court, the popular college sophomore said she had stopped associating with troublesome people.

“As far as my future is concerned, I intend on keeping my present job and staying in school,” Aldridge wrote to her counselor. “This is my second year at Compton College. . . . I work and go to school every day. I plan on . . . one day becoming a successful lawyer.”

In her hometown of Compton, meanwhile, Mayor Walter Tucker, a neighbor of the family who employed Lina Aldridge as a part-time receptionist in his dental office, said he never detected any signs of her drug abuse.

“I’m not denying anything that may be brought out,” Tucker said. “I’m just saying that I wasn’t aware of it. . . . She was always neat and courteous and on time.”

Circumstances of Death

Tucker added that he found the circumstances of her death particularly appalling. “I don’t think she deserved to be placed in a trunk,” he said. “I wouldn’t have done that to a dog.”

“It doesn’t take an Einstein to figure out that she didn’t lock herself in that car,” Tucker said. “So how did she get there? We’re just encouraging the police to do their job.”

Williams’ friends say that Williams, who recently won a basketball scholarship at Idaho State University, was a popular athlete. William Thomas, the Compton College sports information director, said Williams was also serious about his future.

“Roy is a victim, too,” Thomas said. “Both of these people are Compton’s children. Both were young adults on their way through college, and both were trying to make something of themselves.”

Contributing to this story were Times staff writers Adrienne Goodman in Los Angeles and Igor Greenwald and Anthony Millican in San Diego.