Coroner Concludes That Umbrella Killed Woman

The Kern County coroner’s office concluded Thursday that a Camarillo woman was killed because she was hit by one of the 488-pound umbrellas, erected in the Tejon Pass by artist Christo, when it was blown loose in a windstorm.

Christo’s attorney has maintained since the Oct. 26 death that there was no evidence the victim, Lori Rae Keevil-Mathews, 33, had actually been hit by the uprooted umbrella, speculating that she could have fallen at the same time the umbrella broke loose.

However, the coroner’s office dismissed that possibility. “That just could not have caused the injuries she suffered,” which included a broken back, multiple skull fractures, numerous broken bones in her face and contusions of the brain, said James Malouf, the coroner’s chief investigator. “There would have had to have been an outside force.”