THE TORONTO STAR Saturday, May 23, 1992 A17

Police probe crash that killed woman

By Drew Hasselback
TORONTO STAR

Police are interviewing three nevf witnesses to a car crash in which a women was hit by an out-or-control car as she left a Yonge St. grocery store. Marlene Joan (Lynn) Coombs, wife of children's television star Ernest Coombs, was killed in stantly Thursday when she was hit,by the car and thrown through the window of a down town Loblaws store. Coombs, 55, of Twyn Rivers Dr. .in Pickering, died of massive internal injuries. Her husband, Ernest, has appeared as Mr. Dressup on CBC-TV for 25 years. Hundreds of people saw the ac cident. Police are re-interviewing witnesses, and are hoping more Coombs recently sold the day care centre in hopes of spending will.phone investigators. "I guess you could say we're more time travelling with her husband. The couple liked to spend time at their cottage in Metro police are investigating Maine and on ski trips, Barnes the possibility that the driver of said. the car may have had a seizure Westbrook said Coombs's son before the crash. Chris, 27, ew to Toronto from vPXlve/ !** Trochym, 24, of his home m California last night. Kennedy Rd., Scarborough, was taken to St. Michael's Hospital, u,eJ*iauhter with Coombs's was at thejhouse Catherine, V where he works in the hospital two granddaughters and two step-grandsons. hJH fu^,re? a was being treat z hospital while he sei ure at the HoT,he/Uineral wiU be fteld Moned for his injuries," Staff Ser rJ atu KPAm- at ^ox United &A 2569 Midland Ave. The geant Wally Watts said. be sent to Centennial College to Trochym was listed in critical ciyfh,as^sked that donations condition, but Farrell said Troch ldLnHSCl!?lar?.hip in the W childhood education program guSencf SbIe t0 Speak *** Ws Visitation will take place at beCoombs was leaving the gro den Funeral Homes, Sheppard cery store at Yonge anB Temper ance Sts. south of Richmond St. Ave., between 2 and 4 and 7and y p.m. tomorrow. around 4 p.m. when a black D With les from Kellie HudBuick climbed a curb and hit her son and Dottle O'Neill.

in front of hundreds of horried witnesses. A male pedestrian who was hit by the car escaped with minor injuries, police said. A spokesperson at the CBC said the Mr. Dressup program will continue as scheduled. A family friend who answered the door at the Coombs's Picker ing home yesterday said the fam ily is not ready to make any pub lic statement. But Ken Westbrook, a close friend and neighbor of the family for the past 22 years, said Coombs's husband was "not do ing very well." Coombs opened a day-care centre, the Butternut School, in

JteSlSd**'Constable Jim