Carol Anne Gotbaum

Carol Anne Gotbaum was a South African-born air traveler who died, at age 45, on September 28, 2007 in Phoenix, Arizona in Sky Harbor International Airport while being held in police custody. She was arrested after becoming angry while attempting to board her plane to enter an alcohol treatment center in Tucson, Arizona.

Gotbaum was unable to board her flight, as it had been overbooked. After being denied passage on a later flight, Gotbaum became irate; reviews of publicly available closed-circuit security tapes shows her lurching about and flailing, as well as hurling a PDA device at a U.S. Airways employee. Several passengers subsequently claimed they attempted to switch seats so she could make her flight, but were dissuaded by employees of the airline, U.S. Airways but there is no information available to verify this.

Soon after the assault with the PDA, security officers were called and Gotbaum was arrested. According to Phoenix police, as she was taken away, Gotbaum was irate and continued to scream. She was subsequently handcuffed to a bench and left in a holding cell for five to ten minutes. Police state they did not check on her when she was screaming, but became concerned when she stopped. When authorities later checked on her, they found Gotbaum dead.

The story of Gotbaum's death became national headline news, and newspapers across the country speculated as to what had actually happened. Most reports stated simply that she had been late in arriving for her flight, although this was changed in later news stories. The Gotbaum family announced its intention to investigate and potentially sue the police pending an autopsy, which they hired a representative to attend. Police officials say that officers acted justly and according to protocol. The Maricopa County Medical Examiner found Gotbaum accidentally strangled herself and ruled her death an accident. The report states she was acutely intoxicated on alcohol and prescription medication at the time of her death. These medicines included the antidepressants Citalopram and Duloxetine, as well as the antitussive Dextromethorphan and the antihistamines Diphenhydramine and Chlorpheniramine. Her blood alcohol content was .24 — three times the legal driving limit in Arizona.

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