Carol Anne Gotbaum (left)
, the daughter-in-law of New York city Advocate Betsy Gotbaum (picture below) died in a holding cell at Sky Harbor International Airport following a conflict with gate crews.
Phoenix police said Carol Anne Gotbaum, 45, may have strangled herself while struggling to free herself from the cuffs. Authorities said neither a Taser nor pepper spray was used on Gotbaum.
Carol Anne Gotbaum was arrested at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport after getting into a confrontation with gate crews who refused to allow her to board a plane to Tucson, said Sgt. Andy Hill, a Phoenix police spokesman.
She was rebooked on the next flight, but "she became extremely irate, apparently running up and down the gate area," airline spokesman Derek Hanna said yesterday.
Carol Anne Gotbaum, originally from South Africa, married Betsy Gotbaum's stepson Noah (the son of Betsy's husband, 
Victor Gotbaum, and his former wife, Dr. Sarah Gotbaum) in a ceremony at Central Park's Loeb Boathouse in 1995.
The daughter of a retired commander of the South African Navy Diving School, Carol Anne Gotbaum had a master's of business administration degree from a prestigious Johannesburg university and worked for a time as a senior buyer for a British department store.
Update: Picture of Carol Anne Gotbaum who might have choked herself to death was uploaded. Besty Gotbaum praised that her daughter-in-law is a wonderful mother. via
Update: Sgt. Andy Hill of the Phoenix police said that Ms. Gotbaum, of Manhattan, was found with a shackle used to connect her handcuffs to a bench stretched across her throat, and said that investigators believed 
she had become entangled while trying to shift her handcuffs from behind her back to the front. Carol Anne Gotbaum was on the way on her way to an alcohol rehabilitation program. Gotbaum family is waiting autopsy in this unusual airport death. NYT
Update:A released surveillance video shows Carol Anne Gotbaum, who by this point had her hands cuffed behind her back, struggling with three officers as she was placed under arrest in the Phoenix airport.
Source: Betsy Gotbaum's daughter-in-law dies in Phoenix airport @ Nydailynews.com
