Dora Kent (May 1, 1904 – December 11, 1987)[1] was the subject of a 1988 legal controversy about whether she had been murdered to facilitate her cryonic suspension.
[1][3] In December 1987, succumbing to Alzheimer's disease and pneumonia, Kent was brought by her son to the Alcor facility in Riverside, California, where she died.
[4] The Riverside County coroner's office, led by Raymond Carrillo, autopsied Kent's headless body and determined the cause of death to be pneumonia.
Later, the coroner said that the presence of certain metabolites in the body suggested that she was still alive at the time of preservation.
[8] Ultimately, the court granted a restraining order against the coroner, protecting the head of Dora Kent and the other frozen human remains at Alcor from seizure, destruction or damage.