More Tests Fail to Turn Up Drugs in Body of Student

The death of a Compton College honors student found in the trunk of a car in downtown San Diego continues to puzzle investigators as more coroner’s tests showed no over-the-counter or prescription drugs present in her body.

The results have added to the mystery of how and why Lina Dolores Aldridge, 19, a popular college sophomore, died, officials said.

Earlier tests had ruled out cocaine and other common street drugs such as PCP and methamphetamine. A final sample will be tested at UC Davis for another drug, known on the street as China white heroin, investigators said. Results from that test are expected this week.

“It’s not only frustrating for us, it’s frustrating for her family when you can’t label a cause of death,” San Diego homicide detective Bill Nulton said Tuesday. “If we can’t say this is a homicide, or doctors can’t say she died at the hands of another, it really limits what we can do.”

No Proof of Foul Play

Detectives have no proof of foul play, but soon will travel to Compton to further investigate the case.

“Obviously she was put (in the trunk) by somebody. She didn’t climb in there herself,” Nulton said. “We’re not at a point where we’re just giving up on it.”

Aldridge’s body was discovered July 28 in the trunk of her car, parked on 3rd Avenue near Broadway.

The honor student, who held two part-time jobs, had been dead for as long as 18 hours, and her body had partly decomposed, making it more difficult for pathologists to investigate.

Based on an account by Roy Williams, a 24-year-old Compton basketball player who told police he was with the woman before she died, investigators earlier thought Aldridge may have died from a cocaine overdose.

Test results received Aug. 1 disproved that theory, although court records in Los Angeles County showed that Aldridge was undergoing drug-rehabilitation counseling for cocaine possession in the year leading up to her death.