WOMAN DIES IN HOME FIRE

A woman delivering a homebound meal to a Cape Girardeau woman Tuesday, found the elderly woman dead in her home.

Lois J. Middlebrook, 76, of 514 Amethyst was pronounced dead by Cape Girardeau County Coroner John Carpenter shortly before 11 a.m. Tuesday, although the coroner believes she died sometime Monday evening. The woman was found lying on her living room floor.

Carpenter contributed her death to "traumatic shock due to second and third degree burns on most of her body."

Investigators believe the woman fell asleep on a sofa in her home some time late Monday, while holding a lit cigarette. She awoke to find the furniture on fire.

"We think she tried to extinguish the fire before she died," said Carpenter. "In doing so, her clothes caught on fire."

The woman either put the fire out herself, or it burned itself out, Carpenter said. No calls for emergency help were made to either the police or fire departments.

"Evidently she died as she was trying to get the clothing off," said Carpenter. "With someone that old and frail, the shock was just too much for her to take."

The Cape Girardeau Fire Department was dispatched to the scene at 10:33 a.m. Tuesday after a call came in from the woman who discovered Middlebrook's body. By then, Carpenter said, the woman had been dead for about 12 hours.