Woman dies after falling from 7th floor trash chute at high-rise apartment building

DAYTON — A woman is dead after being stuck in a Dayton high-rise building’s trash compactor on Monday.

>> PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Woman in critical condition after falling into trash chute at high-rise apartment building

Dayton Police Major Brian Johns provided an update on the woman, who was said to be in critical condition after the fall on Monday on Dayton Towers Drive. Johns said the woman, identified as 44-year-old Kathie Lee Griffin, of Dayton, had died from her injuries.

As reported on News Center 7 at 5:00, Griffin had fallen from the trash chute on the seventh floor and was found by a maintenance man working in the basement who heard her cries for help.

“Yeah, they’re stuck. I’m not moving the machine until somebody gets here and tells me what I can do,” the maintenance man told dispatchers in a newly obtained 911 call.

Griffin was “severely entangled in the trash compactor.” New body camera video obtained on Tuesday showed the hallway leading to the cramped basement boiler room where the rescue took place. Firefighters even called in a surgical team to help care for Griffin as they worked to get her out.

“Guy, let the doctors in there real quick,” one first responder on the scene said in the video.

Crews were able to get Griffin out in roughly 90 minutes and took her to an area hospital where she later died.

>> PHOTOS: Person rescued after falling into trash chute at high-rise apartment building

Police are not sure at this time how she got into that trash chute, but do not suspect foul play.

Johns said Dayton police spoke with Griffin two days before her death when she called them. They believed she might have had some mental health struggles, but spoke with her and cleared the scene.

“I’m not sure if she actually fell down the chute or had a mental or physical health episode and fell down the chute accidentally,” Johns said.

News Center 7 reached out to the management company for the building about the incident.

“It’s a very tragic event. Our thoughts and prayers are with the family of Kathie Lee Griffin,” Rusty Lykes, Oberer Company Vice President said. “It’s devastating to all of us, It’s just a horrific Incident.”

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