On Wednesday, April 3rd, 2014, the body of a 96 year-old-woman was found in a parking lot in an apartment complex in St. Petersburg, at about 4:30 a.m., by a front desk clerk who was taking a smoke break. The 61-year-old clerk returned to his duties after seeing the body, thinking it was just a mannequin used for a prank for April Fool’s Day, just a few days earlier.
After another employee, who also thought that the body was fake, alerted the clerk, he asked a few other employees to help move it to the dumpster, which he reportedly still believed was a mannequin at the time.
Later on the day, a maintenance worker noticed the body in the dumpster and called police upon realizing it was, in fact, a human body. The death was ruled a suicide. Police investigated the scene, and found that the woman had suffered from severe depression. Leaving behind a suicide note, the woman climbed out her window, and jumped from her apartment on the 16th floor.
Police have not released the woman’s name, but are still tracking down the woman’s family members for notification of the death. No one will be faced with criminal charges for the mistake; however, according to CBS News, the clerk who made the initial mistake is now fired.
