Death at CR 06/05

[Ted and Holly]

missypie, I doubt many people seen the tent or noticed it if they did see it. It is the same structures Disney commonly use to "close off" work or activity that may be going on that they want to shield from public view. I have seen these structures many times on Disney property.


k_k_100, I don't hold the CR responsible for what happened. But, they do know we stay at the CR every year for 12 years. As far as I am concerned, they didn't do anything to help us at all. They insisted that we move to a different room (wich we gladly did) but after that there was no help moving rooms, no one asked us how we were doing, they didn't even help with the luggage transfer. I believe they could have done something small to try to help salvage our vacation, a fruit basket or maybe a dinner comped. They did nothing. No one even told us they were sorry for what happened. I was up all night with the police. My wife was up most of the night. I believe she did doze off at about 6:30 or so. My son slept through most of it, up until the time the police started to i assume "re-enact" everything above us in the room. That is what it sounded like to me.

If they would have done any little gesture, we would have felt like they cared. They did nothing.

When I checked out, there was a one night credit on our account for what they refered to as "an incident".

I actually think they were happy to see us go. It was one more link to this death that was gone.

This sounds like a really traumatic experience, but it soinds like they did a "small gesture", they did not charge you for the terrible night.

If you see a car accident and it affects you emotionally, are you going to ask that the city or state do something nice for you?

Maybe I am missing the point.

Ted

 

[missypie]

I didn't find the CR CMs to be overly friendly or "Disney". Seems like they would have made a gesture of trying to transfer you to another hotel, then left it up to you as to whether you wanted to do it or not.

 

[Kim in TN]

What a terrible thing to have experienced especially while on vacation

 

[Sarangel]

I'd heard the rumor that this happened, but haven't been able to verify it (which is why I didn't post it). What I heard was that it was a suicide, but I imagine that yensid2005 will hear from authorities if it turns out to have been something else...

Yensid2005, please accept my sympathies at having to be witness to such an event.

Sarangel

 

[Jackie H.]

This is so horrible. I am very sorry this happened to your family. You say your son didn't see anything? Did he hear about it? I guess it was impossible to keep the whole thing from him, but I hope you were/are able to.

I am not a policeman or any type of law enforcement person (and I don't even watch CSI), but there was person who commited suicide on the steps of a police station in Birmingham, AL recently and the body was there for several hours - I am thinking about 8-10 hours - while the police officers did whatever it is they have to do. I DO work for a news radio station and we had reporters on this story and the body really did stay out there for that long. This along with the other posts on this site lead me to believe this is not really that unsual, unfortunately.

 

[KristinU]

I'm not surprised that there isn't any coverage if it was a suicide, like a PP said the lack of coverage is respectful to the victim's family. This stirred up a memory for me: we were camping a couple of years ago in Vermont when a hiking trail along a river gorge was closed in one direction just as we were headed down it. A couple of citizens stopped us and told us it was closed and that officials were on their way and that there had been an accident. It was a very busy trail on a weekend so lots of hikers were talking as they met up on the trail and rumors were flying about a body. Then we did see emergency officials heading down the trail on their ATVs. It turned out that a man had committed suicide by jumping off a bridge a bit up-stream and his body had washed ashore. Very sad. Even though we didn't actually see anything it was really unsettling and I thought about it for weeks afterwards (and searched online for more info - and found nothing, similar to this incident) yensid2005, I can understand why you were really upset by this experience...what you saw and heard was very sad and much more intense than my experience. I hope you're able to get some closure to the whole situation soon.

 

[pattyivtoo]

I work at the Disney reservation center. On Monday morning we had a "Reactive statement" to give out if anyone called and asked. They said it was a suicide

 

[pattyivtoo]

This event did happen. We have a family member who is a CM. CM's were told it was a suicide. I can see easily how / why Disney would keep this quiet. "

Don't you find it peculiar that, with about 60,000 employees on site---not all of whom are enchanted by the mouse---and with a large hotel full of other guests....absolutely no one but the OP has made mentioned of the incident. I consider that virtually impossible no matter how much Disney might want to cover something up

No not peculiar at all. I am a CM it DID happen

 

[kerrynic78]

I can't imagine going to a place like the CR, while on vacation to comit suicide, but then again I have no idea what is going through a person's head when they decide to do this. So sad.

 

[Luv2Roam]

Yeah, I heard (very little) about this late Sunday. I did not want to mention it and figured it would be posted here soon enough. As someone else mentioned there was a blurb of a suicide at 4:00 a.m. at the Cont.
I looked a few times in the Orlando paper and saw no mention. Supposedly this incident was on the early Sunday morning TV news.

 

[Luv2Roam]

mmm... When was it -- just a few years ago when there were two suicides fairly close together in time at WDW?
One was the man who had a fight with his wife while staying at the Poly I think. His body was found in Seven Seas Lagoon, and his clothes on the beach.
And not long after that someone purposely jumped onto the monorail track from outside their room at the Cont.

 

[Maria395712]

disney keeps everything quiet. my friends were at key west a few years ago and a young woman was murdered by the woods and he saw all the police and next morning everything was gone he asked CM's and no one talked, all police tape and everytjing was gone never read anything or even if they caught who did it . he witnessed all the police activy so it is no urban legend he still thinks about it and we just talked about how they cover everything they can

 

[yensid2005]

I would like to thank everyone who responded to this. This has been haunting me since it happened. I know what I saw and what I heard that night. From my point of view.. everyone was ruling this a suicide virtually 30 minutes after it happened. There are definitley scenarios to sustantiate a struggle followed by a suicide. I am relieved that it was nothing more.

Thanks to all who helped.

 

[Jennasis]

I must disagree with the posters who said that a suicide is not news (or national news). Having worked as both a cameraman and occassional reporter/writer for MANY years at a 24 hour cable news station, I will tell you that not only is a suicide news, it is ESPECIALLY news when it happens at a place like Disneyworld. I am surprised it wasn't covered further even with Disney's well known story squashing ability. The fact that it happened on a weekend and in the middle of the night is likely why it was so easily hushed.

It may have been "ruled" a suicide so quickly if someone (other than the individual in the room with the victim) saw the man actually jump.

Very sad.

 

[ColoradoBelle1]

Yensid2005,
I am so sorry that you had to witness this death at a place of magical moments for you and your family. I can understand why it was so upsetting, especially when it reeked of 'coverup' after you heard 'an altercation' in the room above you.

I hope that you can resolve it in your own mind...that it was indeed a sad suicide; that the altercation was because someone was trying to prevent another from taking his life. But if you have any misgivings that that was the case from what you heard, then you might want to call whomever you gave a report to on-scene.

I can understand why Disney tried to downplay the 'accident'. I'm sure that is why the didn't really do or say anything to you...because the CMs were probably told from 'above' how to react to any questions. Caught in the middle if you will. I too believe that they should have offered to move you to another resort. I think I would have asked them that had it been me.

I hope that with time you can resolve your feelings and issues because of this event that certainly traumatized you and your family.

Hanname

 

[Feralpeg]

Not to sound callous, but I'm not sure that Disney didn't do enough for you. I totally understand how upset you were. I was the witness to a suicide from the top of our office building about ten years ago. It was horrible. That being said, they did move you to a different room and give you a comp for one night. From experience I can tell you that even if they had moved you to another hotel, it wouldn't have helped your mood. It took me several weeks to get over having witnessed what I saw.

I also saw a horrible accident at a water park a few years back. It really made me sick. I couldn't stop thinking about it. However, I didn't expect the water park to do anything for me. It was terrible for everyone involved, including the water park. Sadly, things happen. At some point in everyone's life, they are probably going to witness something extremely upsetting. That doesn't mean that the place where it happens owes us anything. Disney couldn't have done anything to prevent what happened. Why should they pay for it?

As far as covering it up, of course they did. Who would be happy knowing about something like that happening during their vacation or even prior to their staying there. I bet there have been a bunch of deaths at WDW over the many years. I wouldn't want to know that someone had died in my room.

I apologize if this sounds heartless. I really don't mean it that way. I just don't think that you should be upset with Disney.

 

[rocketriter]

The intensity (perfectly justified) of the OP's unhappy reaction to this event explains why Disney doesn't expose guests to death when they can avoid it. Something that can disturb an adult for days is not the kind of experience they want grown-ups to have at the parks--let alone children.

It's not a cover-up; the police were informed properly and the press has access to police records if they're doing their job. Disney doesn't owe anyone a press release or media announcement about something like this. And how does the public benefit from this story, anyway? I'd feel differently if this were a matter of Disney's fault, bad design, safety, public nuisance or negligence. But a suicide?

 

[Happy Birthday Cat]

My apologies to yensid2005 for doubting the story. Between it being your first post (under this name) and no news coverage, it had the feeling of someone starting a rumor. I'm sorry you had to deal with this at all and wish you the best.

HBC

 

[raidermatt]

The only thing I can see that Disney probably should have done for the OP that they didn't is helped with the luggage transfer. Certainly if I were told I was required to change rooms I would expect them to move my luggage for me, regardless of the reason for the move.


As for the lack of publicity, I had always thought the authorities didn't like a lot of publicity for suicides in highly visible venues. No need to give anybody else the idea that place "X" is a good place to do the deed. I'm pretty sure I heard that's the case with the Golden Gate Bridge.

 

[Dznefreek]

Ahh the Circle of Life.