Updated at 12:05 p.m.
By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
CHEHALIS – The 28-year-old Centralia woman whose body was pulled from the Skookumchuck River last month drowned, the Lewis County Coroner’s Office said today.
Coroner Warren McLeod said his investigation is completed and he is labeling the manner of death for Kimberly A. Gotcher as undetermined. That’s not unusual, he said.
“The vast majority of unwitnessed drownings are listed as undetermined,” McLeod said. “None of us knows how she ended up in the water.”
The Lewis County Sheriff’s Office has described Gotcher as a homeless person who had a campsite under a bridge nearby.
Deputies called to Schaefer Park just northeast of Centralia about 12:38 p.m. on Oct. 21 recovered Gotcher’s body from the river. There were no obvious signs of what caused her death, authorities said at the time.
The sheriff’s office has not shared information about who found her in the river or who called 911 that day. Today a sheriff’s office spokesperson indicated they won’t talk about the case until after their work on it completed.
McLeod said the autopsy showed indications that she drowned, but he waited for the results of toxicology tests before finalizing his conclusions.
The coroner’s office paid a private lab for the testing, because the turnaround time from the Washington State Patrol Crime Lab has, in at least one local case, grown to more than six months.
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For background, read “News brief: Coroner has no cause of death for woman found in river” from Thursday October 25, 2018, here
Tags: By Sharyn L. Decker, news reporter