“The Spray Tan Murder”- The Death of Eleanora “Lina” Kaufman

Sep 2

On November 7th, 2007, a 911 call came in and the person on the other end was named Adam Kaufman. He was calling to report that he found his 33 year old wife unconscious in the bathroom. She was found dead later that day.

Adam Kaufman has always maintained that he was home in bed and in his pajamas when he went to check on his wife and found her slumped over the magazine rack (more on that later). However, the police said when they arrived and spoke to Adam, he was fully dressed and his car was warm to the touch like he had just returned home.

The original autopsy was done and Lina’s cause of death at the time was “undetermined” even though she had injuries to her upper back, and abrasions were also found on her chin, neck, shoulder and chest. A second autopsy was done and after 18 months her cause of death went from undetermined to death by mechanical asphyxiation (i.e choking or cutting off her air supply).

In 2009 at Adam’s bond hearing, his attorneys stated that Lina suffered from fainting spells and that she just had gotten a spray tan to attend Seth Kaufman’s (Adam’s twin brother) wedding. It was stated that she had gotten a severe allergic reaction to the spray tan and that’s why she passed out and eventually died. (In my opinion, this is even worse than the Twinkie Defense, especially because I’ve gotten a spray tan). They also said the abrasions they found were caused by the magazine rack that she was slumped over after she suffered a heart attack.

There were many surprises in Adam’s trial including the woman that he was supposedly having sex with after Lina died, even though she later said they were more like friends because he was “emotionally unavailable.” Aventura police officer Robert Meyers said that Adam had told different versions of what happened like that he found Lina leaning over the toilet bowl, and her head hung over the rack of magazines. Another plot twist, Detective Anna Howell from the Crime Scene Investigation, who was married and had 3 children had an affair with Detective Anthony Angula. Anna Howell denied it so many times even stating her husband knew about the affair and that they were “still happily married.”

The most surprising to me and maybe to everyone was Lina’s own mother Frida Aizman testifying on Adam’s behalf. She stated that they had become even closer after Lina’s death and that Lina herself said she was getting headaches and feeling weak. She even had an outburst in the court room when she thought she was being called a liar by the prosecutor.

On June 4th, 2012 Adam Kaufman was found not guilty and was reunited with his children.

**I have a lot of opinions about this case:

1) I don’t think the magazine rack could have caused those marks (if you watch the Deadline with Tamron Hall episode it shows her neck up close).

2) I’ve gotten a spray tan before and I’ve never felt dizzy or gotten an allergic reaction and I’m not saying it couldn’t happen but the whole spray defense bothers me.

3) I think the husband did it. I’ve watched 48 Hours and Deadline about this case and he never seems to grieve or be that upset.

4) The last thing that bothered me was in the Deadline episode, his brother Seth is interviewed and Seth was asked something along the lines of “why do you think the cops said Adam was all dressed up when he said he was at home in his pajamas,” and Seth says "I came over not too long after the 911 call and the police could have mixed us up.” That bothered me because was Seth wearing pajamas or would the cops really not know which brother was Adam?