Death of 75-year-old San Marcos woman being investigated
By: DAN SIMMONS - Staff Writer
Autopsy expected today | ∞
SAN MARCOS -- San Diego County sheriff's deputies found 75-year-old Mimi Rohwer dead in her mobile home early Wednesday morning.
A collection of letters to the editor from Mimi Rohwer
Homicide investigators remained at her house the rest of the day trying to figure out how the great-grandmother and high priestess of the Wiccan religion died.
She "appeared to have some injuries" that could have been caused by either violence or an accidental fall, according to Homicide Lt. Dennis Brugos.
Brugos mentioned no specific leads, but neighbors and friends told of recent feuds she had with a neighbor and a migrant worker who lived with her.
Three blocks of the street she lived on were sealed by yellow police tape Wednesday as sheriff's detectives and medical examiner investigators filed into and out of her home.
By the end of the day, Brugos said they were still treating her death as a "possible homicide" and will await results of an autopsy, scheduled for today, before proceeding further with a criminal investigation.
"The post-mortem exam will tell the story," he said.
Her daughter called deputies about midnight Tuesday and said she hadn't heard from Rohwer since Saturday. Sheriff's deputies arrived at her two-bedroom mobile home on 1219 E. Barham Drive at 12:40 a.m. Wednesday and found her dead inside.
Her longtime friend and fellow complex resident, Bill Eade, 79, said he had a roast beef dinner with her Saturday night. He said he hadn't heard from her since, although a neighbor did see her on Monday, Brugos said.
Friends and neighbors said Rohwer was a very visible presence on the 195-unit campus of the Casitas del Sol mobile-home park, where she owned two properties and had lived since 1999, said park receptionist Joan Pettersen.
"She was a very nice, energetic person," friend and neighbor William Davis, 60, said. "She had quite a few friends in the park whom she talked to all the time."
However, Davis and Eade said she also had some problems of late that concerned them.
One of them involved a neighbor who Eade said was recently evicted.
"I know she was really ticked off," Davis said. "They had been aggravating her with people coming in and out at all hours and sometimes blocking her driveway with their cars."
Detective Sgt. Tom Bulow of the San Marcos Sheriff's Substation declined comment on the woman's dealings with her neighbor, saying all communication was being handled by the homicide unit.
Eade said she also had problems with a 57-year-old migrant worker whom she sheltered and fed. She invited him to stay with her several years ago, he said, after the man did some work at the complex and needed a place to stay.
"She tried to save the whole world all by herself," Eade said. "She was always doing things to help people."
Over time, though, she grew fed up with the man, Eade said.
"He was freeloading," he said, and she was going through a formal eviction process after unsuccessfully asking him multiple times to move out.
Brugos said the man was not at Rohwer's home when deputies arrived Wednesday morning. Rohwer's car wasn't there, either, although her pickup truck, which Brugos said the man typically drove, was parked in the driveway.
Investigators said they are not treating the man or anyone else as a suspect.
"At this point, we're not really sure if there's any criminal aspect to this at all," Brugos said.
Eade, a Wiccan priest, said Rohwer's death brought him great sadness. But their faith teaches she will return.
"Her spirit will come back in another body," he said. "We keep learning each time we come back."
-- Contact staff writer Dan Simmons at (760) 740-5426 or dsimmons@nctimes.com.
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KMc wrote on Jan 23, 2008 9:40 PM:Her spirit will come back in another body? Somebody buy that guy some cool aid!
To KMc wrote on Jan 23, 2008 10:55 PM:Your lack of spiritual undersanding is pathetic. Your disrepect at a time like this is unexcusable. You might study Wiccan ways before you dismiss them. All spiritual beliefs should be respected. Mimi Roher deserves respect as well. This is a sad end to the current life of a very kind soul.
Also to KMc wrote on Jan 24, 2008 3:28 AM:Many believe that our souls or spirits live on and reincarnate to continue the path. ... Better luck next time. Karma.
Orion wrote on Jan 24, 2008 8:05 AM:Why is it that the first one to post a comment is usaly a ...
We will meet again sister and may your travles pleasant.
Sm Wiccan wrote on Jan 24, 2008 10:13 AM:My our Mother comfort and keep you, Mimi.
Rutilus wrote on Jan 24, 2008 11:45 AM:Sister may your time in the Summerland be sweet and your next life Sweeter! Enjoy your vacation.
To KMc wrote on Jan 24, 2008 11:48 AM:... You apparently lack the slightest amount of knowledge about Wiccan beliefs and I'm sure even less of your own...
The fact is wrote on Jan 24, 2008 12:05 PM:we are all born into a world we didn't create, conscious of the inevitability of our own death, and anquished that we have no one to blame for our problems but ourselves. We are doomed to be free, to choose, to make our lives out of what we find in them. Blaming others, god, the devil, whatever is just an all-too-human way of trying to place the blame anywhere but where it belongs: on ourselves. Only when we take the ultimate responsibility for our situations can we begin to forge a better way for ourselves and humankind.
Stormdancer wrote on Jan 24, 2008 1:41 PM:Mimi you my best friend. As you always tell me we are so alike. I love and will miss you.
Angel wrote on Jan 24, 2008 7:04 PM:For a Lady who presided at my wedding, may my husband be there to meet you, and make your time sweeter with a friendly face. You will be missed.
Tracy wrote on Jan 24, 2008 9:42 PM:Mimi you are now the light you always told everyone they would become. Thank you for being my friend, my HP, my sister. And staying with me through my surgery. I will miss your laugh and spunky oneliners, I am sure you have them all rolling on the floor in the Summerland. I love you and your coolness. Merry meet and merry part, my lady, the circle remains unbroken. Have fun over there, girl!
Right wrote on Jan 25, 2008 9:39 AM:"We keep learning each time we come back."
Apparently, this was Mimi's first time through? She sure as heck hadn't learned much the 1st 75 years. She was stuck in a Middle Ages Cult and denied God's Son and laws. Not to mention 'man's laws'. Sheltering an ILLEGAL ALIEN, a felony, ended up with her on the short end of the stick. Maybe she will come back as a pony? At least they don't write idiotic, Left Wing letters to the Editor.
Empathy for Mimi wrote on Jan 26, 2008 5:12 AM:Cut Mimi some slack. It might have been her 'first time through' but give her credit for seeing the path. Nobody said it would be easy. We progress when we learn from our mistakes. I am assured that law enforcement will get past what should be and deal with what is. ...
P wrote on Jan 27, 2008 10:39 PM:Excuse me but to the uneducated hack named Right the article does not say illegal worker but migrant worker the one does not mean the other. I have an uncle who is a migrant worker, former police officer, and who served in the army. Also Wicca might be a cult by definition but so is christianity so that is no insult to her whom given everyones reaction seems to of been a nice lady, and will go on to be another good soul in the world agian.
WovenLuna wrote on Jan 29, 2008 11:44 AM:There will always be people whose belief structure says they must condemn others. While this is not an excuse, it is a reason for blind lack of individuality and free thought. Mimi, may you rest in the arms of the Goddess in the Summerlands, and may your next come 'round be sweeter than this!
Poe wrote on Jan 31, 2008 9:15 AM:Let's put the semantics on ice here for a second boys and girls. It isn't about God/Goddess, it isn't about your faith is better then mine, or that poor woman who did not believe. All of that doesn't matter the truth of the matter is this, a woman died, and her death was written about today.
Her daughter will have to go to the city morgue to claim her mother. Her family and her friends will have to mourn her. They will have to bury this woman and they will have a hole in their life from where she used to be.
This woman was taken in an act of violence most likely by someone she had cared for and trusted and here you all are auguring about whether she gets the summer lands, heaven, hell, or reincarnation. I want you all if you can to take but a moment to reflect on this woman the little we know about her and honor her like a person and not an abstract cause. Someone died today, lets try to act like people and respect that.
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