Man dies after balcony tumble

Wednesday, November 8, 2006

Law enforcement officials are investigating the death of a person who fell off of a hotel balcony in Cloverdale early Wednes-day morning.

Officials were dispatched totheDays Inn Mote on U.S. 231 at 6:35 a.m. Wednesday, for a person who had apparently fallen off a balcony.

Upon arrival, officials discovered the person lying on the pavement next to the 60-room hotel.

Operation Life, the Putnam County Sheriff's Dept. and Cloverdale Police Dept. responded to the scene.

PCSD Deputy Don Pettit told the BannerGraphic Wednesday that the person had died, but no identification had been discovered as of press-time.

He added officials were unsure regarding how the person fell from the balcony.

"As far as what happened, we don't know," Pettit told the BannerGraphic. "It's still under investigation."

CPD Chief Charlie Hallam said officials with the Putnam County Coroner's office were on the scene and that Sheriff's Det. Pat McFadden had traveled to Greencastle in order to obtain a search warrant for the person's room.

Hallam said a search warrant had to be obtained because the death took place outside of the person's room. He said officials wanted positive identification of the person.

"It's still in preliminary stages of investigation," Hallam said. "It's a questionable death at this time."

Hallam added officials did no want to make mistakes regarding identification, similar to what took place earlier this year when two accident were mixed up following a vehicular accident involving students from Taylor University.

"We're doing this by the book," Hallam said. "We want to make sure we cover all the basis."

Officials with the Days Inn said they did not have any further information regarding the death.

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