Family Files $50M Claim After Unhoused Woman Found Dead in Towed Van
A San Diego family has filed a $50 million damages claim against the city after their unhoused relative was discovered dead inside her towed van a month after a car accident. The family alleges wrongful death and negligence on the part of the city and its police officers.
Monica Cameroni De Adams, 65, was living in her Honda minivan when it was struck by a driver at about 1 a.m. on November 5, 2023. The driver was later arrested for driving under the influence, and Cameroni De Adams’s vehicle sustained significant damage, including a crushed rear door and broken windows, according to reports.
Police officers responding to the scene called for a private tow truck company to impound the van. According to police records, an officer stated that they were unable to identify the owners of the damaged cars and had them towed to prevent further vandalism or theft.
On December 6, a month after the incident, a worker at the tow lot discovered a “pungent smell” emanating from the van. Police and fire department officials found Cameroni De Adams “wedged under miscellaneous items in the vehicle’s middle row,” as indicated in the medical examiner’s autopsy. Her body was decomposed, and the cause of death was ruled as multiple blunt force injuries.
The family’s claim asserts that Cameroni De Adams sustained “severe but survivable blunt force injuries” from the initial collision. They further allege that police left her “trapped inside of her vehicle without necessary care,” and that she could have been saved if officers had provided medical attention.
“For my clients to have to live with the knowledge that their mom was towed away alive from the scene of a wreck only to die in a tow yard alone is incredibly difficult,” said John C. Carpenter, the family’s attorney. “It would not have been difficult to see if there was somebody inside. It’s just basic common decency that you would check to see what’s inside a vehicle before you tow it away … They buried her alive in her car.”
The case highlights the precarious situation faced by unhoused individuals in California, which has approximately half of all unsheltered people in the U.S. More than 6,000 people in the San Diego region were counted as living in tents, vehicles, and other makeshift shelters last year.
The claim, which is the initial step in legal action, accuses the city and its police officers of wrongful death, negligence, emotional distress, and “tortious interference with human remains.”
According to the claim and autopsy report, Cameroni De Adams’s family became alarmed when they did not receive a response to the birthday wishes they sent on November 13, a week after the crash. They filed a missing person’s report, and authorities later informed them that her car had been located, but she was still missing. Carpenter mentioned she had been living in her van for seven years and that she was loved.
“She was loved. She was an important part of their family. She mattered,” Carpenter said. He added that it seemed the officers at the scene assumed the vehicle belonged to an unhoused person and treated the car and its owner as “worthless.”
Spokespeople for the police department and city attorney’s office declined to comment, citing pending litigation. Nearly 500 unsheltered individuals died in San Diego County last year due to causes including overdoses, hypothermia, and injuries from floods and vehicle collisions.
