Decomposing body discovered in Woodlands parking garage after sitting unnoticed for two months

[TexasTowelie]

Woodlands residents are baffled as to how the decomposed body of a 26-year-old woman sat unnoticed for nearly two months on the second story of a local parking garage.

On Thursday evening, deputies with the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office were searching for suspects in a domestic fight near the Marriott Waterway Hotel. Making their way to the hotel garage, they discovered a car covered with dust. Inside was the body of a woman who officials say has been reported missing since June 11.

Investigators are treating the case as a possible suicide and, as such, have not released the woman's identity.

Meanwhile, patrons who use the busy Woodlands garage — which is open to the public for a fee and owned by the Marriott — are shocked that no one came across the gruesome scene earlier, especially considering that the lot regularly fills to capacity for concerts at the nearby Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion.

More at http://houston.culturemap.com/news/city_life/08-06-13-decomposing-body-discovered-in-woodlands-parking-garage-after-sitting-unnoticed-for-two-months/ .

[tblue]

1. Ugh.

Sad. I hope it was a suicide and not a murder, though both are tragic. And I'm glad it was police who found her instead of some innocent civilian. Can you imagine? Poor woman, and poor whoever it was who cared enough to report that she was missing. Very very sad.

[silvershadow]

2. Stories like this amaze me. While I admit I don't have the facts at hand, it's hard to fathom that

no one had reported this before. Sad, regardless. May she RIP.

[darkangel218]

3. I hope the family sues Mariott.

They should have had security checking the vehicles periodically. Even a rookie security guard wouldve noticed the same vehicle in the same spot colecting dust.

[TexasTowelie]

4. I agree that somebody should have taken notice earlier,

but I don't know what grounds they would have for filing a lawsuit. On top of that, it's Texas which means that the judicial system is stacked in favor of the corporation.

It's also at the Woodlands which is an upper-income bedroom community split between Harris and Montgomery counties. If the hotel is located in Montgomery county, then it will be hard to get a sympathetic jury since it votes Republican.

[darkangel218]

5. It depends on the security policy/post orders.

And they would probably settle before going to court.

[WolverineDG]

6. For what?

If she did indeed kill herself, why is that Marriott's fault?

If she was murdered, that's a different story.

[darkangel218]

7. For not noticing the same car parked in the same spot for so long

I used to do security and I'm familiar with private parking enforcement. They normally have guards who rove around the lot and note down the vehicles who are parked in the same space for a long period of time.
If something is supicious, usually they get law enforcement to check the vehicle.
Since no one even bother to look inside the vehicle for so long,I believe the family has a pretty strong case.

[TexasTowelie]

8. FYI,

When I lived in Irving I had to let a vehicle sit in a parking garage at work because I lacked the funds to have it repaired or towed to another location. The vehicle stayed there close to six months so I don't believe that two months is an extremely long interval of time, particularly if the tags and inspection sticker were current. I really doubt that the car was even that dirty within a two month timeframe. I know plenty of people that don't even wash their vehicles that frequently. To top it off, the garage required that payment be made upon exit so if it is a free garage I doubt they would be nearly as diligent in monitoring the situation.

Considering that it was a 1,000 car garage would you remember a specific vehicle in those circumstances and how would you know that it hasn't been moved then parked again in the same location? That happened very frequently in the parking garage where I worked because people would have a preferred spot based upon factors such as proximity to elevators, avoiding or choosing the basement levels etc.

Personally, I would never choose a basement level parking space because I know that on occasion those spots become flooded. Meanwhile, I know other people that would choose those spots on purpose because the basement levels are usually the coolest areas.

[darkangel218]

9. This is Marriott parking, not just any parking lot.

Its liability issue, they are mandated to have security.

That being said, I guess the security didn't do their job. If they had contracted an agency, then the said agency is responsible. If it was in house security, then Marriott is in deep doo doo financially.

[TexasTowelie]

11. FWIW,

we don't even know if the car was parked there the entire time. The woman was reported missing on June 11, but that doesn't mean that she parked the vehicle there on that date. She may have decided to travel during the time that she was missing and didn't park in the garage until a later date.

It's possible that video may exist that would provide details about when she arrived, but I don't believe that any laws have been violated. It's also possible that the security was negligent, but would it rise to a standard of gross negligence is for the lawyers to prove.

As long as the vehicle had up to date tags and registration, there really isn't anything extraordinary that would prompt security to be concerned. Just because the vehicle was dirty doesn't mean that it was abandoned. In addition, the article also states that the garage was used by people attending the Cynthia B. Woods pavilion for concerts.

It's going to take an excellent lawyer to prove that the vehicle was parked there for an unreasonable length of time or that it was so unusual that it would have prompted someone to investigate earlier. There might be a lawyer who would try to pursue a settlement, but there will also be plenty of other lawyers for the insurance company covering the entity responsible for the parking garage. With the pieces of information that were provided, my opinion is that there might be a nuisance value settlement to avoid further litigation if a lawsuit were filed. However, the security at the parking garage didn't actually do anything that caused the death of the woman. The only thing that the woman's family could do is to sue for mental anguish and Texas courts (particularly in upper-income Republican counties) are not very generous with mental anguish claims--I used to be the tort reform stat analyst for the Texas Dept. of Insurance so I have a fairly good idea about what I'm writing about.

It's a tragic story, but I already see a lot of questions that could be raised and I'm not an attorney. Step 1 is proving when the vehicle entered the facility and a missing person's report isn't proof.

FWIW, the parking garage I was speaking of earlier is at Williams Square in Las Colinas (definitely not just any parking lot). It provided parking not only for the employees in the building, but also for the exclusive dentist of the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders, a high end beauty salon, the La Cima Club and restaurant (affiliated with Club Corp and more prestigious than any Marriott property). The president of my company drove a Jaguar convertible and there were many other vehicles in the parking garage with hefty price tags. An electronic card was required to enter the garage for employees and tickets were dispensed to the customers of the businesses located there. The parking was contracted to an outside agency and I would regularly meet employees from that agency while walking in the garage. In addition, that parking garage was nearly vacant at night with the exception of one company that kept a few fleet vehicles on the uppermost covered level so it was much more obvious that a vehicle was abandoned compared to a hotel parking garage that is occupied around the clock.

[Daemonaquila]

10. That's just silly.

The Marriott doesn't owe the families of missing people any duty of care to go checking vehicles. Nobody is required even to have a security force in a parking lot for any reason. Businesses do it because it benefits them. But wanting to sue them for negligence over not finding the car and the body is as ridiculous as suing them because someone's car was broken into on the property and a security person didn't happen to witness it and stop the thief.

[darkangel218]

12. You couldnt be more wrong.

They are required to have security. Show me one big hotel chain like Marriott who doesnt have at least a rover doing random patrols.
Security do check vehicles who are suspicious. And if someone had looked inside they would have seen the body.
I know what I'm talking about, I've done security for many years.