The death of an airmen who fell from her fifth-story window has officially been ruled an accident, according to an investigation report released this week by Pacific Air Forces.
A1C Kelly Tomfohrde died April 5, 2015, after falling from the window of her room on the fifth floor of a building at Kadena Air Base, Japan. Tomfohrde was serving with the 115th Fighter Wing of the Wisconsin Air National Guard.
According to the accident investigation report, Tomfohrde watched the University of Wisconsin’s men’s basketball team play in the Final Four championship, and then attended a cookout on base. She “drank multiple cans of beer and consumed an unknown quantity of liquor,” the report said.
Two of Tomfohrde’s friends “noticed [she] was intoxicated” and escorted her back to her room, despite Tomfohrde’s protestations that she wanted to return to the cookout. The two friends tried to get Tomfohrde to go to sleep, and then stepped out into the hallway, according to the Air Force report.
The individuals said they then heard Tomfohrde lock the door to her room and turn on the television. Air Force investigators estimated that it was only ten 10 minutes later that Tomfohrde fell out of the window while carrying her purse and hat.
She was found a few minutes later by two maintenance personnel who called emergency services. Tomfohrde was taken to the U.S. Naval Hospital at Camp Foster, Okinawa, but was pronounced dead. The cause of death was blunt force trauma injuries consistent with a high fall, the investigative report said.
According to Wisconsin newspaper the Marshfield News-Herald, Col. Jeffrey Wiegand, the commander of the 115th Fighter Wing, described Tomfohrde as “an extremely professional airman” who had “dedicated herself to the service of her country, the U.S. Air Force, her state, and the Wisconsin National Guard.”
