Daughter Keeps Her Mother’s Body
Woman, dead 6 years,
found by police in SLO house
Leila W. Knox
The Tribune, (June 23, 2001)
 SAN LUIS OBISPO -- An
elderly woman was found by police Thursday still lying in the bed she apparently
died in six years ago and in the home her daughter has lived in that whole time.
Katherine Jaeger, who lived with her daughter in a quiet neighborhood off
Augusta Street at the southeast end of town, reportedly died Feb. 17, 1995, at
the age of 94 of what police believe to be natural causes.
Her daughter, Loretta Jaeger, 63, did not report the death to the
county Coroner’s Office at the time — or ever.
“Obviously she must not have been in a sound state of mind when
her mother died,” said San Luis Obispo police Lt. Gary Orback. “She didn’t
want to deal with the ramifications of her mother’s death and didn’t call
anyone. ... So she just closed off this room, and the mother’s body has
apparently been in there for six years.”
As time passed, Orback said, Loretta Jaeger thought “If I
call someone they are going to think I did something wrong.”
It is a misdemeanor to fail to report a death, but police
doubt that any charges will be brought against Loretta Jaeger.
The authorities said Loretta Jaeger will remain in the care
of the county Department of Mental Health for at least 72 hours.
At times, the daughter told neighbors who inquired about her
mother that the elderly woman was staying with an aunt in Washington.
“The rumor was her mom had moved up north,” said Fred
Cheda, who grew up in the house next to the Jaegers’ and was back visiting his
parents on Friday morning. “But then later she said her mother was still
living there.”
An official with a company that was paying a pension to
Katherine Jaeger grew concerned when their checks weren’t cashed. The firm
asked police to look in on the elder Jaeger.
When officers arrived at the house Thursday night, Loretta
Jaeger told them her mother was unavailable.
Officers then peered through the front bedroom window of the
nondescript gray home. Through a part in the curtains, they saw the outline of a
body lying on the bed.
San Luis Obispo police Detective Ian Parkinson said the body
was not fully decomposed when the officers found it, but the skin was dried to
the point where it looked mummified. He said Loretta Jaeger had done nothing to
preserve her mother’s corpse but had covered it with a sheet and a blanket.
She also put flytraps in the bedroom.
Cheda said the Jaegers did not have visitors at the modest
home, where they had lived for at least 40 years. He never noticed a foul odor
coming from the house. Neither did Rick Van Blair, the letter carrier who has
delivered mail in the neighborhood for the last dozen years. He said the last
time he saw the elder Jaeger was seven years ago.
“She would come to the door to get her mail,” Van Blair
said, “especially when that pension check came.”
Police say the payments came from a railroad company where
they believe either Katherine Jaeger or her deceased husband may have worked.
“They had been mailing Social Security and pension checks
all these years,” Orback said, “which the daughter did not cash because she
knew that would be wrong.”
Police do not suspect foul play in Katherine Jaeger’s
death. But they added their investigation will not be complete, nor will the
exact cause of death be determined, until autopsy results are released.
Steve Tate, a coroner’s investigator for the San Luis
Obispo County Sheriff’s Department, said the autopsy will begin on Tuesday. It
will be at least a couple of weeks before results from toxicology tests are
released.
Tate said they are bringing in an anthropologist from the
University of California at Santa Cruz to analyze the body.
“We’re concerned about things like positively identifying
the person and being able to determine how long she has been dead,” Tate said.
Dale Wolff, director of county mental health, would not
comment on Loretta Jaeger’s condition, but he said that, in general, people
brought in for observation will either receive outpatient, institutional or
residential care, depending on their needs.
“If they are seriously ill and unable to function on their
own, they might need to be placed in a long-term facility,” Wolff said.
Parkinson said Loretta Jaeger knew that she had dealt with
her mother’s death in an unusual way but added that the woman’s mental
faculties seemed to be intact.
“You have a conversation with her; she doesn’t start
talking about strange things,” Parkinson said. “She knows she should have
reported it, and she is scared she should have reported it. But she didn’t
report it because she didn’t feel comfortable doing it.”
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SLO Man Suffers
Shock, Burns
Accident occurs as he tries to retrieve shoes from power
line
Gina Valencia
The Tribune, June 25, 2001
 SAN LUIS OBISPO
— A Cal Poly student got shocked and burned by a 12,000 volt power
line in the Mustang Village Apartment complex near the university Friday
morning.
 The
21-year-old man, who also is a maintenance worker and lives at the
complex, stood on a third-floor balcony and used a metal swimming pool
pole to try to take down a pair of tennis shoes hanging from the
electrical wire.
“He made contact with the wire and was thrown
backwards,” said Bill Roake, spokesman for Pacific Gas and Electric
Co.
The accident happened at about 11:30 a.m. Friday. The injured man was
taken to Sierra Vista Regional Medical Center after paramedics examined
him for second- and third-degree burns on his hands, legs, stomach and
back, said Duncan Osborne of the San Luis Obispo Fire Department.
“His vital signs were within normal, and he was alert and
conscious” when paramedics arrived, Osborne said.
The man was transferred later to a burn facility in Fresno,
Osborne said.
Others who were at the apartment complex at the time
were not sure at first what had occurred.
“I heard a loud pop and thought it was a car
backfiring,” said Chris Naylon, a student who lives at the complex.
“I went outside and saw the guy on a balcony with the paramedics. He
had his leg up.”
Some residents were left without power for about 45 minutes, Naylon
said.
Brian Imhoff, another student who lives at the complex, said he came
out after hearing a loud noise and also saw the student on the balcony.
“I walked by and saw that his feet where black; they looked
charred,” Imhoff said.
Apartment manager Betty Linton would not give any information on the
student other than a statement released Friday by the Mustang Village
corporate office in Dallas.
“Our main concern is the safety and well-being of the residents and
employees,” Linton read from the statement. “We are working with
authorities ... and regret this occurred.”
PG&E’s Roake said this can serve as a reminder of the
importance of being careful around electrical wires.
“Everyone should treat all lines — whether television or phone
lines — with caution,” Roake said. “And when in doubt, call
PG&E.” |
Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant
Powers Down One Reactor Because of Tainted Water
Unpurified water in non-nuclear steam loop triggers shutdown
David Sneed
The Tribune, June 25, 2001
 One
of the two reactors at Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant was reduced to
half power early Friday when operators noticed impurities in its
steam-generating system.
The move reduced the plant’s electrical output by
550 megawatts, enough to power half a million homes. The power reduction
is not expected to cause a shortage in the state’s electrical supply,
said plant spokesman Jeff Lewis.
Workers are correcting the problem and will determine
today when the unit can be brought back to full power.
“Hopefully, we can get it back in fairly short
order,” Lewis said.
Operators became aware of the problem when they
noticed that water in the non-nuclear steam loop that powers the
electrical generators was becoming salty. At first they thought the
unit’s condenser, which uses seawater to cool the steam, was leaking.
Later investigations showed that the source of the
contamination was the plant’s raw water system. Unpurified water from
storage ponds had gotten into the system.
“Along the way, a valve did not close properly,”
Lewis said. “It doesn’t take much impurity for the system to be out
of standard.”
The plant was down for refueling for 29 days
beginning April 29. It was the shortest refueling in Diablo Canyon’s
history, but the plant did not return to full power until early this
month. During that time, California’s power grid was short 1,150
megawatts — enough to power more than 1 million homes — said company
officials.
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