Body found in downtown elevator shaft
By: John Upton
Examiner Staff Writer
December 2, 2008
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| Human remains were found in an elevator shaft at 55 New Montgomery St. Monday morning. (John Upton/The Examiner) |
SAN FRANCISCO — A body was found rotting in a SoMa office building’s elevator shaft, after a man mysteriously plunged at least six floors to his death nearly a week ago.
The man, in his late 30s, was discovered Monday morning at the historic multitenant Sharon Building at 55 New Montgomery St., San Francisco Police Department Inspector Matt Krimsky said.
Property manager Brad Bernheim said the death was believed to have occurred much earlier than the discovery.
“We believe it happened last Tuesday evening,” Bernheim said Monday. “We saw him coming through the property and on the [security] camera.”
The man, who likely did not work in the building, appeared to have fallen from the sixth or seventh floor before landing on his right side at the bottom of the shaft, according to Krimsky.
The man’s injuries were consistent with a fall, and he appeared to have been killed instantly on impact, according to police spokeswoman Sgt. Lyn Tomioka.
“There’s always the potential for a crime, but it doesn’t appear that there’s anything criminal right now,” Krimsky said.
The body was found below the ground floor at the bottom of the shaft by service employees of an elevator company performing maintenance, according to Bernheim. The below-ground-level part of the building smelled bad, he said, but the area holds trash and routinely emits a foul odor.
The elevators recently passed a routine inspection, according to Bernheim.
“Everyone is mystified at what happened here — and we are, too,” he said.
Police on Monday taped off the affected elevator shaft, one of three that service office suites in the building. Workers were allowed to access their offices through the other two elevators by late afternoon.
Although elevator doors are difficult to open manually for laypeople, they can be easily popped open by industry experts, such as maintenance workers, according to California Department of Industrial Relations spokesman Dean Fryer.
But elevators can open more easily, or accidentally, if certain components have become worn down, according to Fryer, who said his department will investigate the death after police have completed their criminal review.
“We’ll look for any malfunctions in the elevator or in the operations of the elevator, including the hoist, the lift and the doors,” Fryer said. “We’ll look at the machinery. All of the equipment in the machine room will be reviewed from top to bottom.”
The office entrance to the eight-story Chicago-style building is between a cigar shop and the House of Shields bar. It was built in 1912, according to information published by the County Assessor’s Office.
Organizations that lease space on the seventh floor include the San Francisco Rotary Club and the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, according to a building directory. Suites on the sixth floor are leased by a variety of technology and finance companies.
