A 51-year-old woman was found dead Monday, authorities report, on a sidewalk across from a popular Berkeley burger spot on Telegraph Avenue.
The Alameda County coroner’s office identified the woman this week as Lisa Blowers, but little else has been released. The coroner’s office said the woman’s permanent address was not available.
Berkeley Police Sgt. Andrew Frankel said BPD got a call Monday just before 2:40 p.m. about a “possible deceased woman” at Woolsey Street and Telegraph Avenue. Police and firefighters responded. BFD confirmed that the woman had died. BPD turned over the case to the coroner’s office, Frankel said.
The coroner’s office said additional testing, which could take up to two more months, is needed before any information can be released about how the woman may have died.
According to unconfirmed scanner information reviewed by Berkeleyside, someone found Blowers lying next to a wheelchair Monday afternoon on the southern sidewalk on Woolsey, just east of Telegraph.
Blowers was unresponsive. Someone tried to shake her, to rouse her, but it made no difference, according to the scanner traffic.
A community member who asked Berkeleyside about the incident said he saw several officers at the scene Monday afternoon, as well as a coroner’s van.
Berkeleyside has been unable to learn much about Blowers. Her father, a Berkeley resident, died in 2005. Her mother still lives in their North Berkeley home, according to records online. An attempt to reach her was not successful.
A web search of Blowers’ name links to the caption of a December 2016 photograph in the East Bay Times at the Gilman Street homeless encampment beneath Interstate 80. In the image, Blowers is smiling from inside a blue tent at the encampment, holding up her hand to the photographer and reporter, Tom Lochner.
Lochner wrote in the caption that Blowers and two others, who posed near a small Christmas tree in the Dec. 14 story, “wished ‘Happy Holidays’ to passersby.”
Did you know Lisa Blowers? Please share memories in the comments below. Photographs and other information can also be sent to Berkeleyside at emilie@berkeleyside.com.
