Missing Woman's Body Found In Ventilation Duct

Jesus … the wheel awaits.

A 26-year-old woman who was reported missing a month ago was trying to enter a downtown restaurant through its ventilation system when she became trapped and died, police said.

Jamie Minor, 26, was identified Monday as the person discovered inside ductwork leading into Perry’s Steakhouse between the first and second floors of the building at 114 W. Seventh St . Police Cmdr. Julie O’Brien said medical examiners are working to determine Minor’s exact cause of death and that police do not believe foul play was involved.

“This appears to be an incredibly tragic accidental death,” O’Brien said.

At a news conference Monday, O’Brien said Minor showed up for work May 23 as a hostess at the Trace restaurant at the W Austin Hotel. But her co-workers and supervisors became concerned because she was acting “erratically,” O’Brien said.

They arranged for someone to pick her up at 10 p.m., O’Brien said, but at some point Minor left the area. It would be the last time anyone saw her, O’Brien said.

O’Brien said police believe Minor left the hotel and walked to Seventh Street . Surveillance camera footage from the building shows that Minor tried to get into Perry’s Steakhouse, where she once was employed, through a side door. She then tried to enter through a door in the parking garage about 9 p.m. O’Brien said she did not know why Minor did not enter from the front door.

“What we believe for reasons we don’t quite understand yet u2026 is that Jamie entered the parking garage, went to the third floor and forced entry into the duct system, attempting to get into the restaurant that was located on the ground floor because she had a friend who worked there,” O’Brien said.

The ductwork zigged and zagged inside the building, O’Brien said, and Minor became trapped in an area she wasn’t tall enough to get out of and couldn’t move forward or back from.

“That area is located in a part of the building where it’s not readily accessible to anyone, so noises from inside the ductwork couldn’t be heard,” O’Brien said.

On June 2, O’Brien said, maintenance workers found personal items belonging to Minor near an exhaust vent grate on the top floor of a parking garage attached to the Norwood Tower building, where the restaurant is located on the first floor. On June 7, Minor’s family in Bee Cave filed a missing person report with their police department. Minor’s sister Kaylan Minor filed a missing person report with Austin police June 20 , O’Brien said.

On Saturday, homicide detectives, city crews and Austin firefighters broke into the ductwork at the second floor of the garage, and they found an “obviously deceased person” between the first and second floors, O’Brien said.

Detectives are asking anyone who saw Minor that night to call police, O’Brien said.

“I am just heartbroken she made the choices she did,” said Minor’s mother, Pamela Minor, a 59-year-old natural foods sales worker. “I am very saddened she couldn’t get to safety. She probably became frantic. I am very saddened by the suffering she went through.”

“I am just heartbroken she made the choices she did,” said Minor’s mother, Pamela Minor, a 59-year-old natural foods sales worker. “I am very saddened she couldn’t get to safety. She probably became frantic. I am very saddened by the suffering she went through.”

About three months ago, despite her parents’ concerns and objections, Minor was hired as a hostess at the restaurant, her mother said. Her parents worried that Jamie, who did not have her own transportation and a place to stay downtown, would be overwhelmed with a 40-hour workweek.

Pamela Minor said her daughter had been struggling with mental illness, including bipolar disorder, since her early 20s. But Jamie Minor was resolute.

“But that was Jamie; she was determined to make it work,” Pamela Minor said.

Hmm, wonder why no one thought to check the ducts when they found her personal items so close by. SMH … R.I.P.

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