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Dead Body Found At DIA Had Been There For 6 Weeks

DENVER (CBS4) – A passenger found the dead body of a missing woman inside a parked car at Denver International Airport that turned out to have been there for six weeks.

The woman, 56-year-old Katherine Doiel, disappeared last October and her partner, Cynde Luther, said she was told by Westminster police there was little they could do because it involved an adult.

"I think it is deplorable. When a kid goes missing they have an Amber Alert. When an adult is missing, especially if they have a mental illness, nothing is done," said Luther.

Luther posted information on missing persons websites and searched on her own.

"I went through six weeks of hell not knowing anything," said Luther.

Doiel was finally discovered in November dead in her car in the parking garage at DIA by an apparent suicide by pills.

"They said they found her in the back seat of a car on the fourth level parking garage at DIA," said Luther.

What she didn't realize was that every night every license plate on every car in DIA parking is inputted into a handheld computer and stored. A check by police with DIA could have revealed the missing person's car was there.

A DIA spokesman said that there are 40,000 parking spaces at DIA and they can't peer into every car.

Doiel was discovered by a traveler who thought she was simply sleeping but then notified police when he returned from a trip and she was still there.

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