VENTURA : Help Sought to Find Dead Woman’s Kin

Ventura County coroner’s officials are asking for the public’s help in trying to locate relatives of Katie Kitchens, a 41-year-old transient found dead near the mouth of the Ventura River.

An autopsy showed that Kitchens, who went by the last name of Farrish, died of a head injury. Authorities believe that she fell and struck her head several days before she collapsed at her campsite Tuesday afternoon.

Kitchens’ boyfriend, Rafael Newman, ran to the nearest phone at Emma Woods State Beach near Ventura and called for help. But she was dead when paramedics arrived.

Deputy Coroner Jim Wingate said Kitchens is believed to have relatives in Santa Barbara and possibly in Ventura County.

“We’re trying to notify the next of kin so they can take care of the body and be aware of the situation,” he said.

Kitchens, who had blue eyes and medium-length brown hair, was identified by Newman and through fingerprints in a national criminal justice computer. She had been arrested previously for alcohol-related offenses in Santa Barbara County, Wingate said.

The pair had been living at a tidy campsite in an area known as Hobo Jungle since Jan. 2. At the time of her death, Kitchens had a severe head cold, but had refused to seek treatment at a hospital where doctors might have discovered her head wound, Wingate said.