I've delayed in posting about this last event from our vacation because it's pretty upsetting and I wasn't sure how to approach it. I supposed the best way is to deal with it directly, so here it is: Dudley found a dead body in our hotel hallway when we were in Seattle. Literally - a dead body. He had gotten up early (6AM) to get some coffee and left me in the room. Almost immediately after he left the room, he called me saying that he's pretty sure that there was a dead body in the hallway.
Umm- I'm sorry, but WHAT? Obviously, this woke me up pretty quickly and he told me his story. So you can picture this better, our hotel was U-shaped and the elevator was in the center of the U. Our room was down the left hallway. There was an open door that led down the right hallway, but this was propped open the entire time we were there. Dudley left our room and walked towards the elevator and there was a body laying right next to the propped open door that led down the right hallway. He said immediately he knew the person, he was male, was dead. Not asleep, not passed out drunk - dead. And that he had been for probably several hours. There was also a hotel maid standing there. Dudley asked, "Is he OK?" to which she replied, "the police told me not to say anything."Alrightly...
The elevator arrived, and Dudley got on thinking that the situation was under control because the maid mentioned the police. But not only did Dudley get on the elevator - SO DID THE HOTEL MAID! Remember, she was the only other person in the area - there weren't any police or other hotel employees there at this time. She left a dead body alone in a public hotel hallway!
That was when Dudley called me, told me what was going on and then he went to get coffee. At first I was going to stay in the room. I had no desire to be a part of whatever was going to go on down the hallway. But then I thought what if it was murder and the perpetrator was still on the floor? Would it be an active crime scene? Am I going to be banished to my room for the rest of the day with a killer skulking about? With that thought, I got dressed and got the heck out of the hotel. Unfortunately, I had to pass the unfortunate soul who was still laying in the hallway. By this time, there was one police officer who was standing behind the body. There still wasn't any attempt to cover him though. It was pretty surreal and very sad.
When I got to the lobby, there was another police officer talking to the front desk clerk. They were talking pretty openly about the situation and, at the time, no one knew who he was. I guess he didn't have ID on him. The desk clerk stated the the person didn't appear to be a guest in the hotel, or at least not one they knew about. There also weren't any reports of concerned guests looking for someone who never returned to their room. Basically, a stranger showed up and somehow died on our floor and no one knew why, how or who he was. Comforting, huh?
I found Dudley and we hung out at the coffee shop for a bit before heading back to the room. We needed to change clothes to get ready for whatever we had going on that day. We figured that by this time, the police would have removed the body or closed off the area. Turns out - nope. He was still there. Uncovered. Though there was another police officer there by now.
When we left the hotel again, the medical examiner had arrived and he was examining the body. The body was still uncovered, but the ME had at least tried to shut the door a bit to conceal what was going on. The next time we came by, everyone was gone. Later that night, Dudley spoke to the night desk clerk and was told that the gentleman was, in fact, a guest and that he had a heart attack. Honestly, based on what I heard earlier from the front desk clerk, I don't know if I believe that. Especially since, while we were staying in a nice area, both Dudley and I thought we saw a drug deal go down in the park outside of our hotel. I think that a heart attack might just be a story they told us because it was the most tame explanation they could give.
Even a month later, I'm still not sure how to process this event. It's tragic, obviously. Extremely sad. But when you separate from the emotion of the death, I'm also upset at how the hotel handled the situation. You think they would have done something to steer guests away from the area, but they didn't. In fact, they left the area completely unattended. I know they were probably trying to keep guests from finding out about someone dying in their hallway, but we didn't get ANY communication from them at all, even after they knew that Dudley saw him. I'm not sure what I expected the hotel to do, but definitely SOMETHING.
I'm not sure how to wrap this up other than to say that I hope that the family of the gentleman who passed has found some sort of peace. I wish there was something we could have done to help him.
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