Found Dead in Hotel Room

“Found dead in hotel room” is a familiar newspaper headline that sells copies. There is something sad yet sordid that appeals to the voyeur in many if not all of us, and we want to know more.  A hotel room suggests for many of us a sense of holiday, perhaps romance, perhaps affluence, but when a death occurs there suspicions are usually aroused and the care-free spirit of romance turns to something more sinister. A hotel room can also be somewhere lonely, anonymous, the ideal place for clandestine meetings, a place far from home and friends and family. Somewhere that the public may view as the perfect location for something dark.

And not without reason. Some of the more high profile guests who have expired in hotel rooms have done so in some style and by their own hand. Others have had a bit of help from someone else’s hands. The names that come most readily to mind are those of David Carradine and Michael Hutchence who are deemed to have commited suicide in their hotel rooms, perhaps unintentionally, but many others have met their end in hotel rooms too. They didn’t all commit suicide, they weren’t all murdered, but even dying from natural causes in a hotel room raises public interest. It’s something that shouldn’t happen.

GENE PITNEY

This American singer died in the Hilton Hotel Cardiff in April 2006 half way through a concert tour. The 65 year old known especially for his 1960s hits like “24 hours from Tulsa” had toured continually over the previous 40 years, and showing no signs of ill health had performed up to his usual high standard at St David’s hall. The next morning he was found dead in bed by his tour manager. Foul play was ruled out and the final conclusion was that he died of heart disease that had been undetected. His family had stayed in the US and weren’t with him. He died alone and far from home.

Pimp C

this 33 year old US rapper (”real” name Chad Butler) was found dead in a hotel room in Los Angeles in December 2007. Again there was no hint of foul play or self injury. The levels of prescribed medication found in his body were not sufficient to have induced death. However the rapper suffered from sleep apnea, a condituion whereby the sufferer stops breathing for a short while during sleep. This usually rights itself and the sleeper wakens, however the prescription medication may have made it difficult for Pimp C to waken and correct the halted breathing, and this is thought to have resulted in his death.