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Woman found in garage died of broken leg
By Joe Gorman
BOARDMAN
Mahoning County pathologist Dr. Joseph Ohr said Friday a Lemont Drive woman found dead in her garage died of a broken leg.
Dr. Ohr said the shock, pain and blood loss suffered by Jacqueline Bergman, 85, was too much for her heart to handle and caused her death. Dr. Ohr said he was not sure how long Bergman would have lived after she suffered the injury, but he estimated it could not have been more than several minutes.
“The pain and the shock – I really get the sense it would have been minutes,” Dr. Ohr said.
The question now facing investigators is how she suffered the broken leg. Bergman’s son, Phillip Bergman, 45, has been jailed since his mother was found Tuesday on charges of abuse of a corpse and failure to report the death of another.
Township police Detective Glenn Riddle, who is working the case, said Phillip Bergman is still in custody and is expected to remain there until at least Tuesday, when he has a hearing in Mahoning County Area Court in Boardman.
Riddle said investigators already have questioned Phillip Bergman, and Riddle expects to talk to him again at least once more before his court appearance. Riddle would not say what Bergman had talked about so far.
Dr. Ohr said he is waiting until police complete their investigation before issuing an official ruling on Jacqueline Bergman’s death. Dr. Ohr said from what he observed on her body, it does not appear that someone intentionally broke her leg.
“There’s no evidence that someone did it to her,” Dr. Ohr said.
Jacqueline Bergman was found after a neighbor called police expressing concern because she had not been seen for several days. She was found lying over the steps in her garage, reports said.
It is estimated that Bergman’s body was in the garage for more than a week.
Dr. Ohr said besides the pain and the shock, Jacqueline Bergman also lost a lot of blood internally because of her injury. He said there is a lot of room between the muscles in the thigh and a lot of her blood was found pooled in those spaces because of the broken leg.
All of that would have been too much for a person with an 85-year-old heart to take, Dr. Ohr said.
Dr. Ohr also said there is no evidence that Jacqueline Bergman tried to move after she suffered the injury. Dr. Ohr said he has investigated similar cases where people with the same injury tried to move to call for help or find a phone.