JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office is investigating a suspicious death at a Southside hotel.
Action News reporter Letisha Bereola was the first reporter on the scene Saturday morning.
Two women were involved. One woman was sent to UF Health in critical condition and the other was pronounced dead at the hotel.
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Even though JSO marked off an entire block, detectives are focusing their attention on bloody stains on a door, stairwell and windows.
Detectives searched for evidence through Saturday morning. Hotel guests couldn’t leave and no one was allowed in.
“They weren’t found next to each other, but they were found in the same proximity. We believe they do know each other. And at this point we are trying to determine if anybody else was with them,” said JSO Sgt. Michael Paul.
Around 4:40 a.m. Saturday, JSO said someone pulled a fire alarm at Hawthorn Suites off Baymeadows Road.
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About 10 minutes later, a call came in about a suspicious death.
A Jacksonville Fire & Rescue Department tower ladder picked up one woman out of her window. Her room was right in front of the stairway.
“Evidently there is someone bleeding who is moving around in that area with blood transfer on the doors,” said Paul.
Curious onlookers stopped to ask JSO what happened.
“’You didn’t hear the news?’ I said no. He told me that this morning we have a crime scene,” said Lezere Tokpa, an onlooker.
Tokpa took a different way to work Saturday. The crime scene weighing on his mind.
“That can happen to anybody here,” Tokpa said.