Autopsy finally returned on body of woman found in burned vehicle

The autopsy on the body of a 26-year-old Pomeroy woman who is thought to have been a murder victim contains no major surprises, though it does show that she apparently had consumed both alcohol and opiates before she died.

On Feb. 11, Athens County Sheriff's officers found a burned vehicle on Chase Road south of Athens. Inside were the badly charred remains of a body.

DNA analysis has shown that the body in the car was that of Crystal A. King.

A 27-year-old Shade man, Steven N. Dougan, who reportedly knew King, has been charged with murder and other felony offenses in connection with her death.

In a coroner's report filed June 19, Athens County Coroner Harold C. Thompson, III, listed the cause of death for King as "homicidal violence of unknown etiology" (i.e., cause).

A toxicology screen on the body by the Montgomery County Coroner's office turned up evidence of alcohol and opiates in King's system when she died.

The report shows that authorities called in a forensic anthropologist, Elizabeth A. Murray, to examine the remains.

In her report, Murray stated that she could find "no evidence of trauma on any of the bony remains other than what could be explained by the extreme thermal damage," though she noted that most of the remains she examined "were in an extremely fragile and calcined state."

Murray concluded that the body was that of a woman, young to middle-aged, and from 4-foot-11 to 5-foot-3, though she noted that the bone remains may have been shrunk by the fire.

Dougan has been charged with murder, murder with a firearm, aggravated arson, abuse of a corpse, and tampering with evidence. He is currently in jail, and has a trial scheduled to begin Aug. 3.