Guests at Mandarin Hotel stunned by ‘split in half’ sweater
Guests and staff at the chic Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Manhattan are unsure who the mysterious jumper is who caused a grisly scene when he jumped to his death in his pajamas from the roof, sources said on Friday.
“I’m still in shock,” said Louisa Gassab of Paris, France, who is staying at the five-star Columbus Circle hotel.
“He was lying on the floor wrapped in a sheet. I saw part of him on the ground, I don’t know what. When I woke up this morning, I asked the hotel staff what happened, but they didn’t answer me,” she said.
The unidentified man – who appears not to have been in the building or staying at his apartments – entered the building via a freight elevator and fell about 750 feet around 9 p.m. Thursday, sources said.
On the way down, he crashed into the glass awning of the hotel entrance and split his body in half from the impact, according to sources.
Sources added that an arm was found across the street near blood-splattered scaffolding Thursday night.
By Friday afternoon, rain had washed away the blood, but shattered glass from the awning lay strewn on the sidewalk near 80 Columbus Circle.
The area was cordoned off with a velvet rope from the hotel, where rooms with Central Park views cost more than $1,195 a night.
Police had still not identified the 5’10 tall, 200-pound mystery jumper as of Friday. Staff told officers they didn’t know who he was, sources said.
The posh hotel occupies the top 19 floors of the 55-story Deutsche Bank Center tower, where celebrities — including Jay-Z and Tom Brady — and other wealthy A-listers own their residences.
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