Police believe she was stuck in the window for about nine hours after she texted to her husband, “I wish the spare key was here.”
Kline locked herself out before going to work in Cincinnati as a nurse around 9 a.m. and was trying to get into her home through a basement window that is about 3 feet wide by 1 foot tall, police say.
Kline, who was 5 feet 5 inches tall and weighed 150 pounds, became stuck in the window.
“Preliminary (investigation) based on text messages back and forth, (showed) there was no communication after early morning, around 9 a.m.,” said Warren County Coroner’s Investigator Doyle Burke.
Neighbors told police they did not hear any screams.
She was found feet-first in the window opening, said Lebanon police Sgt. Jeffrey Mitchell.
“It was a narrow opening, smaller than a person’s body,” Mitchell said. “Not a whole lot of maneuvering room, because it’s below ground in a window well.”
David Kline notified authorities a little after 6 p.m. Tuesday and emergency personnel pronounced her dead at the scene.
She died from compressive asphyxiation, a condition that prevents the chest from expanding and contracting, according to Burke.
Investigators believe she tried to escape from the window because they found abrasions on her body. Mitchell does not suspect foul play.
Rob Cook, a neighbor who lives three doors down, said David Kline works as a semitrailer driver and the incident “is a terrible tragedy for the community.”
“They were a nice couple to have in the community and they were always quiet,” he said. “We said hello in passing.”
Another neighbor, who declined to give her name, said Esther Kline was a “very nice and sweet person.”
Contact this reporter at (513) 755-5112 or kelgazzar@coxohio.com.
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