Police Investigating Man’s Hotel Fall

OCEAN CITY — There were more questions than answers late yesterday surrounding a local man’s fall from the broken window of sixth-floor room at a north-end hotel in Ocean City early Wednesday morning.

Shortly after 4 a.m. on Wednesday, a not-yet-officially identified man fell to his death from a sixth-floor room at the Fenwick Inn on 138th Street under what appears to be suspicious circumstances.

The Ocean City Police Department (OCPD) responded to what they were still calling late yesterday an unattended death. The victim’s body was transported on Wednesday to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Baltimore for a complete autopsy while the investigation at the scene continued.

“The investigation is ongoing,” OCPD spokeswoman Jessica Waters said late yesterday. “The body has been sent to the Medical Examiner’s Office and we’re waiting for those results. In the meantime, our detectives are still up there trying to sort out just what happened.”

Waters said the department was not in a position to release any more details about the investigation except that everything was still on the table.

“Nothing has been ruled out,” she said. “At this point, we still aren’t sure if we’re dealing with a suicide, an accident or something criminal in nature.”

While nothing has been ruled out, it does not appear the incident was a suicide. The window, which is on the sixth floor of the hotel on the Coastal Highway side of the building just to the left of the main entrance to the facility, was clearly broken with a gaping hole with jagged edges, suggesting it was not opened or pushed out.

One source close to the situation believed the victim was arguing with a female in an altercation that turned physical and she pushed him through the glass window to his death.

Another knowledgeable source confirmed the victim was arguing with an unidentified female, but the broken window and subsequent fall was accidental. In either case, only the unidentified woman likely knows what really happened.

By mid-morning on Wednesday, the Ocean City Fire Department had responded to the hotel to begin repairing the window with a ladder truck as the investigation continued inside and outside the hotel.

Waters said it could be days or even a week before the results from the Medical Examiner’s Office are returned.

“It’s one of those things that’s so out of ordinary for us, so we want to make sure we have everything right before we release any more details,” Waters said.