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Police: body found in vacant a suspicious death

Posted at 7:28 PM, May 03, 2018
and last updated 2018-05-03 19:28:14-04

The fenced off a pile of bricks on North Calhoun Street in West Baltimore is what's left of what was essentially a tomb.

For whom and why are just a couple of the questions being asked by police, neighbors, and employees of the lone business on this distressed block.

"I don't know, it's a mystery. It's a mystery but you know like we are saying these old houses...people come in and out, you never know who is in there," said Kimberly Pinder who works at a nearby laundromat.

Wednesday, demolition crews charged with taking down four vacant homes in West Baltimore had to stop after the first unit yesterday.

Baltimore Police say as the heavy machinery began to knock down the home, the body of a man fell out from an upper floor an onto the sidewalk.

Detectives now say they saw some pre-existing trauma to the man but because of the decomposition must wait on the medical examiner before ruling in, or ruling out homicide.

"So right now, we are waiting to get all the results back from the autopsy to determine cause and manner of death but we are investigating it as a suspicious death," said Baltimore Police Chief T. J. Smith.

But as police wait, demo crews were back on the block today to finish the job.

Baltimore Housing says the four rowhomes were all condemned and scheduled for demolition.

While they can't expect workers to walk through a building because of the safety concerns in these mostly dilapidated structures, they will yell to see if anyone is inside before knocking them down.

A policy that paid off today as this was the scene in one of those vacant homes just minutes before the machines were fired up.

Further proof some on North Calhoun say that the demolitions should continue.

"We don’t need the activity you know? And just like that body fell out of there, you never know what else is in there."