June 18, 2010 Airport suicide victim un-noticed for 4 months www.privateofficer.com
Lansing Mi June 18 2010
Source: Michigan news Four months ago, a woman parked her car in the long-term parking lot at Lansing’s airport and apparently killed herself, officials said.
Her body lay on the floor behind the Chrysler PT Cruiser’s front seats, hidden from view by the car’s tinted rear windows.
Last week, a Transportation Security Administration officer conducting a security sweep noticed a strong smell, opened the car and found the woman’s badly decomposed body, officials said.
Clinton County sheriff’s Detective Sgt. Robert Sipple said there is “a considerable amount of evidence showing it was a self-inflicted drug overdose.” A final toxicology report is pending.
The car had been parked in the lot at the Capital Region International Airport since February, officials said. Authorities previously had said they believed it had been there since May. Investigators are nearly certain they have identified the woman and have notified her family. They are awaiting dental records for final confirmation.
The woman was reported missing from the east side of the state and had a history of suicidal behavior, Sipple said.
Concerns have been raised about how a dead body could have gone undetected for so long. But airport spokeswoman Nicole Noll-Williams said nothing about the exterior of the car drew suspicion and the rear tinted windows helped conceal the body.
“There was absolutely nothing about that vehicle that would have drawn any attention,” Noll-Williams said.
Every day, an airport police officer, contract security officer or TSA officer does a “walk-through” of the parking lot, she said.
They are mostly on the lookout for vandalism or such things as something leaking from under the vehicle, Noll-Williams said.
On March 1, four airport police officers were laid off – including the only two sergeants – leaving the airport with eight officers and a chief. The layoffs came amid a steep decline in the number of passengers at the airport.
Homer Lafrinere, staff representative of the Police Officers Labor Council, the union that represents the officers, said there’s no way of knowing whether the layoffs are responsible for the body remaining undiscovered for months.
“There’s no way of saying that, for sure, it’s connected,” Lafrinere said. “There is a possibility of that because of the lack of manpower and womanpower.”
Her body lay on the floor behind the Chrysler PT Cruiser’s front seats, hidden from view by the car’s tinted rear windows.
Last week, a Transportation Security Administration officer conducting a security sweep noticed a strong smell, opened the car and found the woman’s badly decomposed body, officials said.
Clinton County sheriff’s Detective Sgt. Robert Sipple said there is “a considerable amount of evidence showing it was a self-inflicted drug overdose.” A final toxicology report is pending.
The car had been parked in the lot at the Capital Region International Airport since February, officials said. Authorities previously had said they believed it had been there since May. Investigators are nearly certain they have identified the woman and have notified her family. They are awaiting dental records for final confirmation.
The woman was reported missing from the east side of the state and had a history of suicidal behavior, Sipple said.
Concerns have been raised about how a dead body could have gone undetected for so long. But airport spokeswoman Nicole Noll-Williams said nothing about the exterior of the car drew suspicion and the rear tinted windows helped conceal the body.
“There was absolutely nothing about that vehicle that would have drawn any attention,” Noll-Williams said.
Every day, an airport police officer, contract security officer or TSA officer does a “walk-through” of the parking lot, she said.
They are mostly on the lookout for vandalism or such things as something leaking from under the vehicle, Noll-Williams said.
On March 1, four airport police officers were laid off – including the only two sergeants – leaving the airport with eight officers and a chief. The layoffs came amid a steep decline in the number of passengers at the airport.
Homer Lafrinere, staff representative of the Police Officers Labor Council, the union that represents the officers, said there’s no way of knowing whether the layoffs are responsible for the body remaining undiscovered for months.
“There’s no way of saying that, for sure, it’s connected,” Lafrinere said. “There is a possibility of that because of the lack of manpower and womanpower.”
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