A Florida woman has been identified after a portable toilet explosion killed her instantly on Saturday morning. The explosion was so drastic that it took officials several days to make a positive identification.
First Coast News reports that the victim has been identified as 62-year-old Denise Victoria McQuaig of St. Augustine. According to the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office, the woman lived down the road from where the explosion occurred.
As CrimeOnline previously reported, the incident occurred at the 500 block of Horseshoe Road in St. Augustine, at around 7 a.m. on Saturday morning. Witnesses said that the “porta-potty” was sitting in front of a residence undergoing construction work. The homeowner said no work was scheduled to be done on that morning.
The Medical Examiner’s Office made a positive identification on the woman, but the severity of the deadly explosion has made it difficult to determine a cause of death. However, police said after interviewing neighbors about McQuaig, they don’t have any reason to believe at this time that foul play was involved.
“We have evidence, but we do not have an official cause of death yet,” St. Johns Sheriff’s Office spokesman Chuck Mulligan said, according to Ocala StarBanner. “We have a pretty good idea of what we think happened, but we have not released that yet.”
“The cause is still being investigated and very much active. … We had the bomb team out and they were X-raying the melted plastic to see if anything was inside it. We had ATF and fire marshal out.”
Law enforcement is back out at the construction site where a women’s remains were found inside a portable toilet occurred this weekend. They say they’re just following up and looking for answers. They’re hoping to have some new information for us later @ActionNewsJax pic.twitter.com/kBqmaTqnoC
— Meghan Moriarty (@MeghanANjax) September 30, 2019
McQuaig had no history of arrests in the area.
The story continues to develop. Check back for further updates.
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[Feature Photo: Pixabay]