Yolo County coroner’s officials were unable to determine what caused the death of a Davis woman whose body was found at a South Davis housing cooperative earlier this year, according to a coroner’s report released Wednesday.
Crystal Marie Apodaca’s body showed signs of traumatic injuries — including multiple abrasions and contusions to her head, back, abdomen, arms and legs — when a building manager discovered her on the floor of her room at the Pacifico Cooperative housing community on Drew Circle on the morning of March 3.
A portion of Apodaca’s thyroid cartilage in her throat area was fractured, the surrounding muscle tissue darkened from hemorrhaging, noted the forensic pathologist who conducted her autopsy.
But Apodaca, 37, also had a large amount of methamphetamine in her bloodstream, a level considered by between toxic and lethal, along with low to normal amounts of multiple prescription drugs used to treat depression, epilepsy and Parkinson’s disease. The autopsy also revealed signs of heart disease.
“In her case there is just a lot of stuff going on, and our pathologist could not pinpoint any one particular thing caused her death,” Yolo County Chief Deputy Coroner Gina Moya said. “It’s just one of those cases where there’s no smoking gun.”
As a result, Apodaca’s manner of death has been listed as undetermined, with factors pointing toward both homicide and an accidental death, the coroner’s report says.
Melissa Fehrenbach, the Yolo County deputy coroner who conducted the investigation, noted that “A) Foul play could not be ruled out by the scene investigation; B) Blunt force trauma was found during the autopsy; C) Toxicology showed methamphetamine in the decedent’s blood; D) Medical records reflect a history of illicit drug use and a recent relapse; E) Interviews with family confirm long-term drug use.”
Whether those findings will lead to the filing of criminal charges against the man initially arrested in connection with Apodaca’s death remains to be seen. Officials from the Yolo County District Attorney’s Office could not immediately be reached for comment today.
John Paul Johnson. Courtesy photo
John Paul Johnson, 52, remains in Yolo County Jail custody in an unrelated case in which he allegedly was found in possession of methamphetamine and a stun gun during a June 9 probation search at the Motel 6 on Chiles Road.
Davis police arrested Johnson, a neighbor of Apodaca’s, following the discovery of the body, citing at the time “suspicious circumstances warranting a homicide investigation.”
The DA’s Office declined to file homicide charges against Johnson at the time, pending further investigation into the circumstances surrounding Apodaca’s death. Instead, he was ordered to remain in Yolo County Jail custody until late May for violating his probation in an earlier case by being in possession of drugs.
Earlier, in a jailhouse interview, Johnson told The Davis Enterprise that he and Apodaca — whom he described as his girlfriend of about a month — had been using methamphetamine in his apartment during the early hours of March 3, and he awoke later that morning to discover her dead.
Panicked, he said he first reported the death to several of his neighbors, who convinced him to move Apodaca’s body back to her own apartment so that cops wouldn’t find drugs at his place.
Moya said the abrasions and contusions on Apodaca’s body “were all consistent with that movement,” but also could be the results of having a seizure, which Apodaca suffered from time to time, according to her family.
In the jail interview, Johnson said his neighbors — one of whom had helped him move Apodaca’s body back to her room — “all told on me” when police arrived on scene.
“It’s just like a nightmare. I would never hurt her or kill her. I’ve never hurt anybody in my life,” said Johnson, who at the time also pledged to give up drugs for good. Johnson said. “I can’t bring her back, but maybe I can use this as a wake-up call.”
— Reach Lauren Keene at lkeene@davisenterprise.net or 530-747-8048. Follow her on Twitter at @laurenkeene