SEATAC – Autopsy results indicate that the imprisoned director of a Thai museum in Bangkok died of natural causes at the SeaTac Detention Center (first reported here).

According to a spokeswoman for the King County Medical Examiner’s Office, Roxanna Brown passed away from “peritonitis,” an infection caused by a perforated gastric ulcer.

The 62-year-old Brown, a U.S. citizen, died around 2:30am Wednesday while being held for further investigation.

Brown was the director of the Southeast Asian Ceramics Museum at Bangkok University in Thailand. Investigators accused her of allowing collectors to overstate the value of art donated to several Southern California museums and claim tax deductions.

Authorities arrested Brown last week while she was in Seattle visiting relatives. She was charged with one count of wire fraud.

Maggie Ogden, a spokeswoman for the Federal Detention Center, said Brown was booked May 9.

She said all inmates coming into the facility are screened by medical staff, but she declined to speak specifically about Brown’s case.

Brown’s death is under investigation, she said.

SOURCE:

• Seattle P-I

SEATAC – A renowned Asian antiquities expert, indicted in Los Angeles in connection with a federal investigation into illegal trafficking of pilfered Southeast Asian art, has died in custody at the Federal Detention Center in SeaTac.

Roxanna Brown, the director of the Southeast Asian Ceramics Museum at Bangkok University in Thailand, was found dead around 2:30 a.m., said FDC spokeswoman Maggie Ogden.

Brown was arrested at her hotel last Friday as she prepared to have dinner with colleagues from the University of Washington, where she was scheduled to speak Saturday, according to news reports.

Ogden said the cause of Brown’s death is under investigation. Brown had complained of being ill after her arrest and her scheduled appearance before a U.S. magistrate Monday was postponed because she didn’t feel well. Emily Langlie, the spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney’s office in Seattle, said Brown was able to appear in court Tuesday and that her extradition to Los Angeles to answer the charges was pending.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Johns, the Los Angeles prosecutor heading the illegal antiquities investigation, said Brown was “one of many targets” of the probe. He declined to say how her death would affect the investigation.

Brown, 62, who lived in Bangkok, was indicted on a single count of wire fraud for allegedly allowing her electronic signature to be used on appraisal forms of items donated to museums. Those appraisals, according to court documents, were inflated so that the donors could claim fraudulent tax deductions.

SOURCE:

• The Seattle Times

Found on seattle-tacoma craigslist > seattle > rants & raves:

Hey, it’s cool if you don’t make a lot of money and have to scrimp and save just to get by, I get that. I don’t make a ton of money either.

I had to pay a ton of money to go on my vacation with my family, and with two small kids, trust me, it’s pretty crazy travelling.

So, I forget things sometimes. But why is it that if you ever forget and leave something on an Alaska Airlines flight, you can write it off as gone. Do you guys think that just because something is in the seatback pocket, it’s yours???

Do you honestly think that I WANTED you to have my fricking iPod that I spent 6 months saving up for?????

My kids loved listening to the playlist I made for them in the car, and now they can’t thanks to you.

Jerks. You guys have a lost and found. If you find something valuable left on a plane, turn it in.

Email: pers-659423238@craigslist.org

SEATAC – Hazmat teams cordoned off several suitcases at SeaTac Airport today when they discoverd eaking baggage.

It turned out to be Mexican food.

An airport spokesman says a sick man arrived overnight from Puerto Vallarta aboard an Alaska Airlines flight, and had to be taken to the hospital.

The medics didn’t get his bags, so they were set out at the baggage area all night and started leaking.

Crews in hazmat suits taped off the area to investigate, only to find that the man had packed tamales and chile in the bags.

It’s not immediately clear why the man got sick.

SOURCE:

• KTVB News

SEATAC – The King County Sheriff’s Office is searching for a man suspected of exposing himself at least 11 times in the SeaTac area.

He appears to be getting bolder and his activities are escalating, deputies reported.

Investigators released a composite sketch of the suspect Monday morning (see sketch at left).

In the attacks, the suspect has exposed himself to girls and women, aged 11 to 39, in apartment complexes. In some cases, he grabbed or groped the victim as she walked past.

The incidents began in late February. The most recent incident was occurred April 13. They all took place between 5 and 9:30 p.m.

Victims have described the suspect as a man in his mid-20s with olive skin. He’s 5 feet 6 to 5 feet 8 inches tall. He is always dressed in jeans and a hoodie sweatshirt with the hood cinched up around his face.

Here’s a list of the incidents from the Sheriff’s Office:

• February 20, 2008 at Windsor Heights Apts., 17229 – 32nd Ave S.
• February 28, 2008 at Carriage House Apts., 3608 S. 180th.
• February 29, 2008 at Windsor Heights Apts., 17229 – 32nd Ave S.
• March 10, 2008 at Hunt Club Apts., 3726 S. 180th.
• March 23, 2008 at Carriage House Apts., 3608 S. 180th.
• April 12, 2008 at Windsor Heights Apts., 17229 – 32nd Ave S.
• April 13, 2008 at Carriage House Apts., 3608 S. 180th

The apartment manager at Carriage House says there were at least four other incidents at the complex between March 10 and 21st that were not reported.

Anyone with information is asked to call the Sheriff’s Office at (206) 296-3311 or 911.

SOURCE:

• The News Tribune