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Police say Aspen woman’s death likely accidental

Rick Carroll/The Aspen Times

— A new autopsy report will recommend that the death of longtime Aspen resident Cheryl Ann Lurie was an accident, police said Monday.

The passing of Lurie, 54, has been a mystery since her body was found by a passer-by on the morning of Nov. 16 in an outdoor plaza located next to the library. It now is thought that Lurie fell down, and her right eye collided with a sprinkler head, causing her to bleed to death internally.

“While there are still a lot of unknowns, at this time we do not believe anything suspicious happened,” Aspen Police Chief Richard Pryor said.



Police had considered the possibility that Lurie had been killed, after meeting Thursday with a Grand Junction pathologist who concluded that Lurie had been punched in the eye. But Friday night, the case took a turn when Pitkin County sheriff’s detective Ron Ryan found what appeared to be traces of blood on a sprinkler head in the area where Lurie’s body was found.

The sprinkler head was within 2 feet of Lurie’s body, Pryor said.




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