Report: 3 calls before police get frozen body

[Sequoia]

It took three calls to Detroit authorities over two days before they recovered the body of a man frozen in ice in the elevator shaft of a vacant warehouse, a newspaper reported Thursday.

A reporter for The Detroit News said it got a tip and found the body Tuesday in a former Detroit Public Schools warehouse.

A dead body is seen frozen in a block of ice located in an elevator The reporter called 911 Tuesday and told a female operator about the body, the newspaper said. It said a man returned the call to the newsroom about 20 minutes later and said the body would be retrieved.

But the next day, the News said the body was still trapped in the ice. The reporter made two more calls to 911, one of which was disconnected, and a fire department employee arranged to meet the reporter and to get the body, the paper said.

http://www.ajc.com/news/content/shared-gen/ap/National/Frozen_Body.html?cxntlid=homepage_tab_newstab

Meanwhile, a 67-year-old man was found frozen in his truck outside his Detroit-area home......His two dogs were found starved to death in their nearby dog house.
******

This is some scary stuff.

[Barack_America]

1. I can't begin to tell you how much it pains me to see my home state suffering like this.

It is almost unbearable.

[tekisui]

2. Detroit is in a world of hurt right now.

Michigan has long been in a depression. We are seeing how bad it can get.

[TahitiNut]

10. Yup. Michigan leads the nation in unemployment and Detroit is hardest hit of all.

It's grim. VERY grim. More than 1 in 50 people in Detroit are homeless ... over 19,000 ... and houses stand vacant everywhere. :grr:

[Blue Dog Dominion]

3. It's not like the body was going to spoil anytime soon.

[MNDemNY]

4. Ha ha.

[Barack_America]

5. It was potentially a crime scene.

There was potentially a family missing that person.

The police should have come. But, you're right, this is probably what the overstretched police force was thinking, "he isn't going anywhere".

[annarbor]

11. Heartless comment....

Ann Arbor-

[onethatcares]

6. this is the beginning of the end of government

shed jobs, cut taxes, let people die in the cold and leave the bodies for days.

Our grandchildren will never know the world we grew up in as kids.

[Subdivisions]

7. I was just about to post this.

Frozen in indifference: Life goes on around body found in vacant warehouse
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090128/METRO08/901280491

[slampoet]

8. WARNING!! THE PHOTO IS GRAPHIC (and heartbreaking)

I just heard NPR interview the reporter.

Charlie LeDuff is what a REAL reporter looks like.

[TahitiNut]

9. It's almost post-apocalyptic in some places around here. We're hurting.

:cry: :cry:

Kenneth Williams, 47, tries to stay warm at the warehouse. He says he did not call police because he did not believe the body was real. (Ankur Dholakia / The Detroit News)

Waiting for a response

There are at least 19,000 homeless people in Detroit, by some estimates. Put another way, more than 1 in 50 people here are homeless.

The human problem is so bad, and the beds so few, that some shelters in the city provide only a chair. The chair is yours as long as you sit in it. Once you leave, the chair is reassigned.

Thousands of down-on-their-luck adults do nothing more with their day than clutch onto a chair. This passes for normal in some quarters of the city.

"I hate that musical chair game," Ruben said. He said he'd rather live next to a corpse.

Convinced that it was indeed a body, this reporter made a discreet call to a police officer.

"Aw, just give 911 a call," the cop said. "We'll be called eventually."

A call was placed to 911. A woman answered. She was told it was a reporter calling. The operator tried to follow, but seemed confused. "Where is this building?"

She promised to contact the appropriate authorities.

Twenty minutes or so went by when 911 called the newsroom. This time it was a man.

"Where's this building?"

It was explained to him, as was the elevator shaft and the tomb of ice.

"Bring a jack-hammer," this reporter suggested.

"That's what we do," he said.

Nearly 24 hours went by. The elevator shaft was still a gaping wound. There was no crime scene tape. The homeless continued to burn their fires. City schoolchildren still do not have the necessary books to learn. The train station continues to crumble. Too many homicides still go unsolved.

After another two calls to 911 on Wednesday afternoon (one of which was disconnected), the Detroit Fire Department called and agreed to meet nearby.

Capt. Emma McDonald was on the scene.

"Every time I think I've seen it all, I see this," she said.

And with that they went about the work of recovering a person who might otherwise be waiting for the warm winds of spring.

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090129/METRO08/901290400

[Hannah Bell]

12. wow.

[renate]

13. "post-apocalyptic" really does seem to be the word

Unbelievable... beyond heartbreaking. Everyone around him seems to be in the most primal kind of survival mode--and although their reaction seems heartless, it's hard to blame them.

That was a human being, with thoughts and feelings... someone's son, maybe someone's friend, husband, father, brother. :cry:

[Sequoia]

14. This is terrible. TERRIBLE !!!!

It's like a 3rd World Country. Remember that old 70s song "We Nearly Destroyed Detroit This Time?" Looks like it's being destroyed another way now. Hell, what are people to do there? It's tragic too that the man thought the body wasn't real. I mean, I might think the same thing, because you sure wouldn't expect to see anything like that except in a movie or fake cop show. I hope we find out who it is so he won't lie forgotten and unknown in anmarked pauper's grave.

[Junkdrawer]

15. Free trade = all wages drop to Indonesian levels....

Great for the ruling classes...

Sucks for everyone else...

[TahitiNut]

20. Holding wages down to increase profits.

Corporate profits have become greater as a percentage of total employee compensation than since before the Great Depression.



Employees are also CUSTOMERS ... and the "trickle up" of the wealth created by labor is screwing the very businesses dependent on them to buy their products and services. The executives (and owners) take their wealth and 'spend' it overseas, buying factories full of dollar-per-day laborers. It's appalling.

[lonestarnot]

18. Please Mr. President, help these people!

Make use of those vacant houses and get some food and heat going on now!

[ColbertWatcher]

16. Is this the GOP-controlled media's plan for LeBlanc-ing Granholm? n/t

[ColbertWatcher]

19. Excuse me, not "LeBlanc" but Blanco. The GOP will do to Granholm what they did to Blanco. n/t

[damntexdem]

17. Poor response; but the real blame rests with those who killed the economy.

Including the Bushistas as well as Wall Street.