1/16/10

"Progress Energy Lobbyist Dies in Auto Fire Inside Garage"

"This morning at 5am (ET) [January 10, 2011], Ashley Turton died of a car fire in her garage. And, in other news, a man spontaneously combusted on his couch.

Turton’s body was found inside the burning car by the Washington D.C. Fire Department. Turton was the wife of White House deputy director of legislative affairs Dan Turton, and was a lobbyist for Progress Energy (in the news because of a $13.7 billion merger with Duke Energy announced the same day).

At this point, it is too early to come to a conclusion about the cause, but something about a woman crashing into her garage at around 4:50am seems rather curious. Several questions need to be asked.

What was Turton doing driving around at that time? She crashed at around 4:50am, but that means she was driving her car before that time and also that she was coming from somewhere else. Unless, of course, she decided to back out of her garage and driveway, then suddenly decided to commit suicide by slamming into her garage. There are more efficient ways of entering the underworld, though. Also, there are only a few establishments that one could visit in the wee hours of a Monday morning (gas station, 24 hour supermarket, 24 hour fitness clubs, strip clubs, etc).

Why was Turton unable to exit the vehicle? It’s possible that the energy lobbyist had a heart attack, a stroke, a seizure, etc., and this caused her to lose consciousness and thus crash into her garage–but just as she was pulling into the garage?

A question of speed. How much speed would have been required to cause the fire’s ignition? Supplementary question: if Turton didn’t lose consciousness from an undiagnosed medical condition, why didn’t she brake? Perhaps the brakes lost functionality, but then why was she unable to get out of the vehicle again?

Homicide detectives were called to the scene, so there is the suspicion on the part of D.C. police that things aren’t what they seem to be. Even so, their theory is that the car crashed into the garage and ignited, which raises all of the above questions and any others that might develop. "

DJ Pangburn

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