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Doctor Says Rape Victim Too Badly Burned To Determine Other Injuries

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UPDATE 12:35 P.M. A coroner says a woman who died after being found naked and suffering on a rural Ohio road was too badly burned to tell if she'd been injured in most any other way.

The Franklin County coroner, Dr. Jan Gorniak, said Friday that Celeste Fronsman's death was a homicide. But the exact cause of death won't be known for sure until the investigation is complete in four to six weeks.
 
Authorities said the 29-year-old Fronsman was discovered by a motorist early Sunday on a road northeast of Zanesville. She'd been raped and burned, and had a strap around her neck. She died Tuesday at a Columbus hospital.
 
Gorniak said Fronsman had second-, third- and fourth-degree burns on about 80 percent of her body.
 
There have been no arrests.

 

The motorist who discovered a naked, beaten, and badly-burned woman on a rural Muskingum County road has described the scene as "something out of a horror show."

He told the Zanesville Times Recorder that the victim stood up and threw herself toward him as he passed on an Adamsville-area road Sunday morning, pleading for help and crying in agony.

Police are trying to piece together exactly what happened.

The motorist told the newspaper that 29-year-old Celeste Fronsman of Canton was burned from head to toe and her hair was gone. He said she screamed that people were trying to kill her.

The man stopped and placed her on some grass, covered her with a blanket and tried to talk with her.

He then called 911, and she was flown to a hospital. Fronsman died at the OSU Medical Center on Tuesday.

Authorities haven't named any suspects; Muskingum County Sheriff Matt Lutz has said, however, that there are several "persons of interests" in the gruesome case.