Neighbors Thought Dead Body Was Part of Halloween Display
As it sat in the full view of an apartment complex for three days:
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.
I got some crime scene tape and body-outline chalk for Halloween. Maybe there’s someone I really dislike whom I can use to further accessorize the display. After all, if nobody is going to notice for three days . . .
P.S. I got the crime scene tape and body-outline chalk at the gift shop at the Coroner’s Office, in the company of a homicide detective. He said he had never drawn chalk around a body and his fellow cops would laugh at him if he ever tried it.
The most shocking thing here is that the Coroner’s Office has a gift shop.
Comment by Badger 6 — 10/17/2009 @ 3:18 pm
Heh. Souvenir photos available.
Comment by DRJ — 10/17/2009 @ 3:21 pm
Man, that is just sad…what is society coming to?
Comment by Phillip — 10/17/2009 @ 4:40 pm
Hey, Patterico? Can I get coffee mugs there?
(Good idea that you told how/where you got it. Next unfair claim would be that you “borrowed” some from the city. I knew you wouldn’t!)
Comment by ukuleledave — 10/17/2009 @ 4:49 pm
That is one of the newer buildings built in MDR several years ago; some were designated senior housing. Rents were pretty steep 5 years ago when I inquired for my Dad. Wonder if the economy was a factor? Since he was on the third story balcony it is not surprising that he was not noticed.
Comment by CardioNP — 10/17/2009 @ 4:55 pm
What’s really shocking is that no one called the police to report the renter for racism. The dead body of a Middle Eastern man? Surely as a Halloween display that would be considered a step too far.
Comment by Gesundheit — 10/17/2009 @ 4:59 pm
Amazing but not surprising. About 20 years ago near NYC, in pre-cellphone days, residents in a condo complex near a commuter train station had to cross a small bridge over the tracks to get to an alcove where they’d wait for trains. One morning in their pre-coffee funk, they crossed over and failed to notice the body of a young man who had apparently committed suicide, cleanly severed in half by earlier trains. It was in plain sight- it just didnt register with them. Finally, on the last morning train into town, some realized it for what it was, notified the conductor and the authorities removed the young man, who it turns out was a depressed teen and resident of the area.
Comment by DCSCA — 10/17/2009 @ 5:50 pm
Well … Halloween decorations are getting more and more elaborate these days, and at a distance it would be hard to tell whether a third floor display was real.
Comment by DRJ — 10/17/2009 @ 5:57 pm
The neighbors? No family to check on him?
Yeah. We all die alone, in any case, I guess.
Comment by nk — 10/17/2009 @ 8:32 pm
Perhaps you could hold a contest, the winner of whom gets to have a drink at la Casa Patterico, and have the honor of having it be his outline which gets chalked in your Hallowe’en display.
Comment by The always helpful Dana — 10/18/2009 @ 9:24 am
This incident reminds me of the mystery I just finished: Cue For Murder by Helen McCloy (from 1942 – I like vintage mysteries). The murder takes place during the first act of Fedora (a real play). One character, Vladimir, lies unconscious and mortally wounded in view of the audience through the whole act. Then at the end of the act, the other actors discover that “Vladimir” is really dead – stabbed during the play. No one noticed, because Vladimir is supposed to lie still and look dead; he’s even made up that way.
Comment by RIch Rostrom — 10/18/2009 @ 9:47 pm
Another life imitates art … and I love vintage mysteries, too.
Comment by DRJ — 10/18/2009 @ 9:54 pm
You know, that inspires me to ask:
How did that chalk outline business get started in the first place? Was it ever actually done, or did some Hollywood producer make it up out of whole cloth? (Or whole chalk?)
Comment by Karl Lembke — 10/19/2009 @ 1:36 pm