Woman’s death ruled accidental

Jen Lawson

Tuesday, March 4, 2003 | 11:20 a.m.

The death of a woman whose body was found last month inside Titanium Metals Corp. has been officially ruled by the Clark County coroner as accidental, but her family is still bewildered by questions that may never be answered.

Coroner Ron Flud said Stacey Kaplan, 33, died of multiple blunt force injuries consistent with a fall which could have been as a result of an accident or suicide, but he chose to rule her death accidental.

"The question is, did she jump or fall?" Flud said. "When there is no clear-cut evidence of suicide," such as a hand-written suicide note, "we will give someone the benefit of the doubt and say it was accidental."

That doesn't comfort Kaplan's family, her cousin Nicole Harm said.

"It still doesn't solve any issues for us because we still don't know what happened to her," she said. "How did she get out there and why was she there? We know we won't get any answers."

Kaplan's body was found Feb. 3 in a storage building at Timet. The manufacturing plant in Henderson has an elaborate security system that includes around-the-clock guards, surveillance cameras and is surrounded by an 8-foot-high fence topped with razor wire. Kaplan had no known connection to Timet, investigators and her family said.

Timet officials did not want to say how she got onto the property until the problem was corrected.

Metro Police initially handled her death as a homicide, but detectives determined no crime had been committed and the case was closed a few days later. Investigators said Kaplan apparently fell from a catwalk about 25 feet from the ground. There was no evidence of anyone else being inside the building with her, police said.

Kaplan, a mail carrier, had been arrested two days before her death at the Garside Station post office, where she worked. An official for the letter carrier's union said Kaplan had been upset that her supervisors couldn't corroborate her allegations that someone was harassing her on her route. She was arrested for trespassing after refusing to leave the post office.

A relative paid her bail and she was released from jail a few hours after her arrest. She was supposed to pick up her 12-year-old son from her ex-husband's home that night, but didn't show. She was found dead at Timet two days later.

Kaplan didn't have any transportation; she had left her car at the post office. Her family is struggling to understand how she got to the plant, which is 15 miles away from the city jail.

She could have taken a bus, Harm said, but that doesn't explain why she went to Timet. According to her family, she didn't know anyone who worked there and had no reason to be there.

Kaplan's family believes there is a connection to her arrest at the post office and her death, but they have no real evidence.

"She wouldn't have been dead if she hadn't been arrested," Harm said. "She was being tormented at the post office. She didn't deserve to be treated that way."

A memorial service was held a few weeks ago, and many postal workers attended, Harm said, adding it was nice to know she was missed.

Her family is now in the process of getting her affairs in order.

"She has a 12-year-old son and that's who we're concerned about," she said. "He's devastated."