Woman trapped by car dies

Mike Swanson

A Laguna Beach resident died early Monday after being pinned between

her car door and a concrete wall in the parking garage of her

condominium in the 400 block of Mermaid Street.

Police and firefighters found 67-year-old Lita Miller dead at 9:25

a.m. after she apparently tried to exit her BMW 325i while it moved

forward out of her parking space. A maintenance employee arriving for

work found Miller and called 911 from her cell phone.

The cause of death is under investigation by the Orange County

coroner’s office, but police said it appears that Miller died of

either suffocation, a collapsed lung or some complication resulting

from her chest being crushed between the wall and her car. The

coroner’s office expects to release her official cause of death in

four to six weeks.

“This was a freak accident,” Sgt. Jason Kravetz said. “I’ve been

here 14 years and I’ve never seen anything like it. It was a sad,

tragic accident.”

Miller’s car, which had been backed into the parking spot, was

running and in drive when police officers and firefighters arrived.

The tires were turned slightly left, toward the wall, Kravetz said.

Miller was a Realtor with FirstTeam Nolan on Glenneyre and Thalia

streets for about five years, manager Wayne Woodyard said. The office

released a statement Wednesday addressing Miller’s death:

“We at FirstTeam Nolan are shocked and dismayed at the tragic,

even surreal, loss of one of our own. Lita Miller came to Laguna not

so many years ago and through her bold and gregarious personality

made herself memorable to all who met her.

“Whenever you saw Lita, she had some colorfully detailed account

of a recent or even past event in her life ... a granddaughter’s

athletic feat, her mother’s declining years, an ex-husband’s new

wife, a silly incident while being lost between Los Angeles and

Laguna Beach, a new beau from the distant past, a discovered picture

of her as a young mother with her three young daughters,” the

statement continued.

“Lita was never at a loss for words,” the statement read. “She

never missed a party or get-together. She remembered old friends and

new. Lita was a unique, outrageous, lovely, caring and generous woman

and we will truly miss her early morning office ‘drop-ins’ for coffee

and schmoozing.”

Councilman Wayne Baglin sold Miller the condo she’d lived in for

about the last five years, and they’d been close friends since, he

said.

“No matter what kind of conversation you had with Lita, whether

you were agreeing or disagreeing, she left you with a chuckle and a

smile on her face,” Baglin said.

Baglin arrived at the building’s parking lot shortly after police

officers, firefighters and paramedics had arrived. They were

administering CPR when he got there, and she was pronounced dead not

long after.

“I just hope she wasn’t suffering there for too long,” Baglin

said. “She was in excellent condition and had a lot of miles left on

her.”

Miller’s family asks that in lieu of flowers, donations be made to

the Multiple Sclerosis Recipes for MS Research fund at 2440 S.

Sepulveda Blvd., Suite 115, Los Angeles, CA 90064, Attn: Pamela

Thompson.

Miller is survived by daughters Ellen Gleitman, Julie Alpert and

Dana Schornstein; brother Phillip Dezen; and grandchildren Lauren,

Justin, Ashley, Zack, Jessica, Heather, Dustin, Brittany, Lucas and

Chase.

Memorial services will be held privately, Woodyard said.