TORONTO — A “bloody mess” is how a detective described the scene at a downtown hotel where three people were found stabbed to death early Monday.
The body of a male victim was found in a 19th floor hallway at the downtown Delta Chelsea Hotel while the bodies of a man and a woman were discovered in a hotel room.
Det.-Sgt. Steve Ryan said a weapon was recovered at what he described as a “horrific” crime scene, with blood spattered on the “carpet, wall and door.”
The victims appeared to be in their mid-30s, Mr. Ryan said.
Suitcases were found in Room 1908, where two of the bodies were found, and police expected to be able to determine the names of the victims “in a few hours,” he said.
Mr. Ryan said a double murder-suicide was a “real possibility,” but stressed the investigation was in its early stages and it was too soon to draw any conclusions about what sparked the killings.
Police were called to the hotel at about 4:30 a.m. after a security guard on patrol discovered a man's body in the hallway.
Hotel guests in the vicinity heard “a ruckus (and) loud voices,” he said.
Investigators were interviewing about two dozen guests and others.
“There was blood spattered everywhere down the hallway,” Matthew Hunter of Tampa Bay, Fla.
“I'm usually a sound sleeper, but I heard running noises that woke me up.”
David Richardson of Watford, England, said he was asleep in his 19th floor room when he was awoken by an early-morning “commotion,” and thought it was a “a couple drunks” leaning on some of the doors.
“After that, I heard either ‘Help me' or ‘I'm hurt' and ‘It's my heart,' said Mr. Richardson.
The names and ages of the victims have not yet been released.
Two of the victims were pronounced dead at the scene while the third was taken to hospital and pronounced dead there.
The hotel remained open, but the 19th floor was sealed off as police investigated.
The killings were the second act of violence at a major Toronto hotel this summer.
On July 3, Sean Erez, 36, of Quebec, was shot three times during an apparent drug deal gone bad at the Westin Harbour Castle hotel.
