A year after the mysterious death in Mexico of Orange County lawyer Elliot Blair, his widow’s search for “justice” has taken a turn.
At first, Kimberly Williams Blair, 32, was determined to prove Mexican authorities were hiding something. She and her family hired private investigators and commissioned an independent autopsy, hoping to debunk the official report that Elliot died in a drunken fall from a hallway ledge at an upscale hotel in Rosarito.
Kimberly believes he was murdered less than two hours after police in the Baja California resort town shook the couple down for money.
After her investigators hit a dead end with uncooperative law enforcement and hotel workers in Mexico, Kimberly now concedes she may never know who is responsible for her husband’s death and instead is focused on keeping his memory alive.
“If I can wake up tomorrow, a year from now and have people still coming up to me saying what a wonderful person he was, that’s my ‘justice’ for Elliot,” Kimberly said in an interview with the Southern California News Group. “I don’t think we’ll ever get closure.”
She said the only way she can survive her grief is to pivot and shelve the questions that remain.
“I need to focus on his smile and how he made an impact, in order to make it,” she said. “For me, to be able to put one foot in front of the other, get through the day, I have to focus on the wonderful memories of him. … I may not ever be able to know what happened.”
What Kimberly does know, what she has learned, is that U.S. agencies are severely limited in what they can do to help the families of American citizens who are victims of crime or die in foreign countries, especially Mexico.
“The lack of resources, the lack of help and support, from that country and our country is very hard,” she said. “They don’t make it easy.”
Just retrieving Elliot’s body and getting it back across the border into the United States was an ordeal, finally accomplished with the help of Rep. Lou Correa, D-Santa Ana.
Correa said U.S. agencies must coordinate with Mexican authorities to better help American citizens in distress there.
“We need to make sure when the next Elliot Blair situation occurs, we can immediately call folks south of the border and get answers,” he said.
Baja California’s Attorney General’s Office, which has jurisdiction over the Blair investigation, declined to comment.
Death was international news
For weeks after his death on Jan. 14, 2023, the Elliot Blair story commanded the media, here and abroad, fueled by mystery and intrigue.
Elliot, 33, and his wife, both Orange County deputy public defenders, had checked into Las Rocas Resort and Spa in Rosarito to celebrate their first wedding anniversary. They booked their favorite room, 308, dined on lobster, walked on the beach, danced in the bar. Mexico was their “happy place,” where Elliot proposed to Kimberly, had his bachelor party and where they were married.
After a festive Friday, Kimberly went to sleep while Elliot took a shower. Shortly before 1 a.m., Elliot’s body — clad in a T-shirt, socks and underwear — was found beneath a third-story ledge down the hall from their room. Kimberly said she didn’t know anything had happened until after she was awakened by hotel staff.
At the time, Kimberly said she was told by a badge-wearing detective that Elliot had been shot, but police later recanted after a Mexican autopsy failed to turn up any bullet wounds. The investigation was initially opened as an “aggravated homicide.”
But within days, prosecutors announced Blair’s death was an “unfortunate accident.” With a blood alcohol level of 0.10 — higher than the 0.08 limit for driving in California — Elliot had simply stumbled off the ledge to his death, perhaps while trying to shoo noisy pigeons, authorities said.
Questions persisted
Blair’s family didn’t buy it. There were too many questions.
Why did police at the scene say he was shot? Why did they allegedly pressure the family to quickly cremate the body? Why did authorities have the body embalmed before the family could have an independent blood alcohol test conducted? Why was it so hard to get Mexican authorities to release the body for the family to bring home?
And did anyone investigate whether the police shakedown had something to do with Elliot’s death?
Rosarito officers had pulled over Elliott and Kimberly Blair’s truck for rolling through a stop sign and allegedly demanded money to let them go. Kimberly, in a past interview, said Elliot showed officers his public defender’s badge and told them in Spanish where they were staying and that he didn’t have the amount of money they wanted.
Elliot told officers, “We’re attorneys. We’re not down here being reckless. We’re not going to be taken advantage of,” Kimberly said in a previous interview. The Blairs ended up giving police the $160 they had in their wallets.
The family was careful not to accuse the police of being implicated in Blair’s death, but wanted it investigated like any other lead.
And then there was the matter of Elliot’s injuries, which the family said were inconsistent with a simple fall from three stories. For one thing, their independent autopsy showed 40 fractures to the back of his skull, even though he was found face down.
While the family had earlier released information from the independent autopsy, it did not release the actual autopsy report itself. It’s too painful to deal with, Kimberly said. Without the report’s release last year, the news stories dried up. The family went silent.
‘Needed to step back’
“Keeping ourselves in the media was not conducive to the healing,” Kimberly explained. “In order to begin the healing process, I needed to step back.”
She added: “We don’t know if the case (in Mexico) is closed. Am I going to push it any further? No. I need to focus on what I am doing going forward to make (Elliot) happy and proud. … What can I do to make him look down and smile at me?”
Kimberly describes the last year as a roller coaster of emotions. She still doesn’t sleep in their bed, if she sleeps at all. It’s too lonely without him. Also, their bed is a reminder that she was fast asleep when Elliot died.
“I’m scared to be in a bed. I’m scared to fall asleep. I’m scared to wake up,” said Kimberly, who sleeps on the couch.
She cooks the same thing for dinner every night, a chicken patty or chicken sausage, a baked potato and broccoli — it’s easier than having to think about what to make.
“Cooking for one person is sad, it feels pathetic. And sitting here by myself, I just don’t enjoy it,” Kimberly said.
Keeping memories alive
In front of her dining table is the portrait of Elliot that was center stage at his memorial. She talks to the portrait while eating, recounting her day.
Sometimes she visits a medium, who she says gives her messages from Elliot — that he loves her, that he wants her to start sleeping in their bed again. Elliot, through the medium, also leaves her with personal messages for his friends and family, she said.
“He wanted to make sure (we knew) he was still here and he was giving everybody all his time,” Kimberly said.
She believes Elliot comes to her in other ways, too. Like in the sound of the wind chimes outside her house, when the night is still and the wind isn’t blowing. Or when she is on the couch cuddling with her new puppy, a toy poodle she named Ellie.
Kimberly said Elliot felt the most alive when he was in the courtroom, fighting for his often destitute clients. She donated his dress clothes to the public defender’s office for clients to wear in court, inscribing the tags with his initials.
This way they know he is still with them, fighting.
She also created the Elliot Blair Foundation to provide college scholarships to at-risk youths. The group is poised to announce shortly the winners of two $5,000 scholarships, which will go directly to the schools for the winners’ education, Kimberly said.
The foundation is a nod to Elliot’s tenure working in the juvenile court system.
But perhaps the greatest memorial is that Kimberly, who initially went by her maiden name, Williams, also has taken Elliot’s surname. In that way, he is sitting second chair when she goes to court or announces herself to the judge, she said.
“He was there with me when I said, ‘Kimberly Blair for the defense.’ “
As for Mexico, where she left the couple’s 2009 Chevrolet Silverado truck and their clothes, Kimberly remains snake bit.
“I’ll never, ever go back to Mexico,” she said. “I don’t know if I’ll ever leave this country to go to another country. What if something happens?”
Staff writer Destiny Torres contributed to this report.
