DENVER – Residents of a Denver apartment complex say an awful smell coming from their elevator shaft for more than a week turned out to be a decomposing human body.
A tip led Denver-based KMGH to the Woodstream Village apartments, where resident Joseph Palmer said maintenance workers recently told him of the discovery.
“I knew that smell right away because of working for a pest control company. I know the smell of dead rats, unfortunately,” Palmer said.
He said the smell spread through the hallways and into his apartment, and when he asked management about it, he said nothing was done until Tuesday.
That’s when Palmer said he saw crews working on the elevator shaft in hazmat suits and Denver Police Department detectives at the scene.
Palmer asked a maintenance worker what was amiss.
“’Yeah, we figured it out,’” Palmer said the worker told him. “’They actually found a dead body.’ I said, ‘That’s a joke.’ He said, ‘No, I’m not kidding.’”
“I would love to know more about what happened,” Palmer continued. “If it was something that was foul play, I’m not comfortable in this hallway.”
Denver Fire confirmed that officers responded to the same address around 9 a.m. Tuesday for a death investigation, but haven’t elaborated so far. A representative said the coroner’s office would be releasing further details in the case.
Requests for comment made to the apartment complex’s corporate owners were not returned by the time of publication. Denver police are only telling KMGH there is an investigation involving a death.