Mystery Deepens Over Woman’s Death; No Drugs Found in Body

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 that she did not die of a cocaine overdose, as San Diego police initially reported.

But court records in Los Angeles County show that Lina Dolores Aldridge, 19, was undergoing drug rehabilitation counseling in connection with a cocaine possession case 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 had 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.

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 that those tests will be inconclusive.

Aldridge’s body, which authorities believe had been in the car trunk for as long as 18 hours before it was found last Friday, had partially decomposed, hindering pathologists in their investigation.

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

Williams, 24, was taken into custody in Compton last Friday, then released after one day. Compton and San Diego police have said that he is no longer a suspect.

Williams could not be reached for comment Thursday.

Police said they based their original statements about Aldridge’s possible cocaine overdose on statements made to them by Williams and other unidentified sources. Williams told police that the two had driven to San Diego but that he had left Aldridge at an unidentified drug dealer’s house.

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

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

However, records in Inglewood Municipal Court show that Aldridge had been receiving drug 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 show.

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 that she was unaware of the cocaine, but probation officers recommended counseling.

Aldridge was placed in a one-year drug-diversion program as part of a plea-bargain agreement. Court records show that she attended her last session four days before her death.

In a hand-written 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 family neighbor who employed Aldridge as a part-time receptionist in his dental office, said he never detected any signs of 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.”

Tucker added that he found the circumstances of her death particularly galling.

“I don’t think she deserved to be placed in a trunk,” he said. “I wouldn’t have done that to a dog.”

Tucker’s son, Walter Tucker Jr., who has been hired as the family’s attorney, said he is acting as a liaison between the family and the police to ensure that the case is fairly resolved.

“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.”

One question still unanswered is the nature of the relationship between Aldridge and Williams. Aldridge’s friends and relatives said Williams refused to accept Aldridge’s rejections. But Williams’ friends tell a different story.

They say Williams, who recently won a basketball scholarship at Idaho State University, was a popular athlete who had no trouble attracting women.

“He had a whole gang of girls,” teammate Andre Stovall said.

William Thomas, Compton College sports information director, said Williams was 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.”