A UCLA professor died after participating in “recreational mummification bondage” at a Hollywood executive’s Log Angeles home last year, according to an autopsy report obtained this month.
Doran George, also known as Duncan Gilbert, 48, died during a BDSM-related activity at the home of Skip Chasey on Nov. 19, 2017.
“The decedent was covered head to toe by plastic tape and gaffers tape with small breathing holes at the mouth and nose,” according to the coroner’s report. “The decedent’s partner observed that the decedent was not breathing. The partner called 911 and began cutting off plastic and tape.”
Chasey and George had previously held a similar session on November 15, 2017, in the basement of Chasey’s house, the autopsy states. The basement of the house was described as “a BDSM-style dungeon.”
“They had prior consensual sexual relations, multiple times,” said Josh Duran, Chasey’s lawyer.
George, who used gender neutral pronouns, worked at UCLA and had recently taken a post at the University of California Riverside where they taught LGBTQ and Disability Studies. After their death, UCLA LGBTQ Studies installed a community altar in front of the office in memorial.
“Those of you who had the honor of taking this course or being in one of Doran’s discussion sections know that their heart was as big as their laugh,” Alicia Gaspar de Alba, Chair of the LGBTQ Studies Program, said in a tribute. “And that their dedication to social justice was informed by their own queer immigrant experience.”
A separate obituary on UCLA’s Department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance site said George was “highly respected, revered, and adored by faculty, peers, colleagues, students, and friends.”
George grew up in the United Kingdom and had a “successful career as a childhood star in musical comedy.”
Chasey has worked with WME as an agent in business affairs since May 2013, WME Human Resources confirmed Monday to NBCLA. He is still an employee at the company.
He had previously worked with Imagine Television for 15 years, according to his now deleted Linkedin.
Chasey is well-known in the BDSM and leather community where he is known as “Master Skip.” Chasey was the subject of the 2009 book “Ask the Man Who Owns Him” and the star of the 2005 documentary “Pup”, both of which focused on particular sexual fetishes.
George’s manner of death was undetermined as of March 2018.
However, the toxicology studies revealed an above natural amount of Gamma Hydroxybutyrate (GHB) in George’s blood.
“GHB, a respiratory depressant, and the restriction of the chest caused by mummification, contribute to an increased risk for respiratory distress”, according to the autopsy.
“If there are elevated levels of GHB in the body it would not be produced naturally,” said Sarah Buxton De Quintana, supervising criminalist at the LA County Coroner’s office.
Duran denies foul play.
“Neither my client nor Mr. Doran, as according to my client and his friends, used drugs,” Duran said. “My client denies that any drugs were used during the encounter.”
Duran called George’s death an “unfortunate tragedy” and a “freak cause of death.”
