Neighbors thought dead man's body was part of Halloween display

[question everything]

Source: LA Times

The body of 75-year-old man sat decomposing on his Marina del Rey balcony for days because neighbors thought the lifeless figure was part of a Halloween display and didn't call police. Mostafa Mahmoud Zayed had apparently been dead since Monday with a single gunshot wound to one eye. He was slumped over a chair on the third-floor balcony of his apartment on Bora Bora Way, said cameraman Austin Raishbrook, who owns RMG News and was on the scene Thursday when authorities were alerted to the body.

Neighbors told Raishbrook that they noticed the body Monday "but didn't bother calling authorities because it looked like a Halloween dummy," he said. "The body was in plain view of the entire apartment complex they all didn't do anything," Raishbrook said. "It's very strange. It did look unreal, to be honest." An investigator with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department said the case is an "apparent suicide," and declined to comment further.

Coroner's officials were called to the complex at 6:42 p.m. Thursday, according to Capt. John Kades of the county coroner's office. The official cause of death has not be announced. On Friday, Bora Bora Way was quiet with neighbors and workers going about their routines. From the street, which runs along a boat-filled marina, no evidence of the previous night's discovery remained.

(snip)

Earl Kepler, a UPS executive visiting from the Washington, D.C., area, said the complex seemed "a little lonely," with few people out and about. He wasn't surprised to hear that the dead man went undiscovered for a few days. "There doesn't seem to be a lot of community involvement," he said.



Read more: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-marina-death17-2009oct17,0,3558556.story

[Dennis Donovan]

1. Gunshot wound to the eye? That was a mob hit - a "message" so to speak...

Weird...

[Warpy]

2. "Apparent suicide"

which means they found the gun with him.

Most people who try to blow their brains out are well fortified with alcohol. This guy was probably aiming between his eyes and missed.

I was a nurse. I took care of a lot of patients who presented as failed suicides by gunshot because they were too drunk to succeed.

[Dennis Donovan]

3. That'll learn me not to read the whole article...

:blush:

[Warpy]

4. BTDT

Don't worry about it.

[SharonAnn]

5. Not "a lot of community involvement". I'd agree. I lived there for more than

two years and when I transferred, I didn't say "Good-bye" to my neighbors because i didn't know them. I've lived in many cities during my career, but Marina del Rey was the only place I lived where there wasn't "a lot of community involvement."

[crim son]

6. This tends to happen around Halloween -

dead people being mistaken for decorations, that is.

[Iggo]

7. Sounds like an episode of Bones.