Police are treating the death of a Californian woman who was found at the bottom of a laundry chute in a Las Vegas hotel as "suspicious," according to the N.Y. Daily News. Kalli Medina-Brown, a 26-year-old legal secretary, was found dead in the D Las Vegas, the city's tallest hotel and casino.

Medina-Brown was celebrating her birthday with friends and her husband when she allegedly had a medical episode and fell down the chute, according to reports by the Huffington Post. She was discovered at approximately 2:40 a.m. on Sunday morning in a third-floor storage area. Homicide detectives were called to the scene after the circumstances surrounding her death were deemed suspicious, according to KVVU-TV.

The trip to Vegas was in honour of Medina-Brown's 27th birthday, making the incident all the more poignant. Friends of Medina-Brown have been left devastated by the incident, with her childhood friends telling CBS Sacramento that Medina-Brown "was the responsible one" and that she was known within their social circles as calm and mature.

"I told her I hope you have a great time. I hope you enjoy yourself, be safe," Medina-Brown's best friend of 17 years, Sierra Roraback, told CBS Sacramento. "There has to be justice in order to have [closure] on the situation and sleep a little better... We have to figure out who did this, we have to figure out what happened."

The cause of death is still currently unknown but the hotel has confirmed that it is cooperating with the authorities. A spokesperson for the hotel said in a statement that they were "saddened by the unfortunate incident" and that they could not comment on the ongoing investigation, according to KTNV.