A man came across what he thought was a mannequin from an April Fools' Day prank and threw it into a dumpster. But the mannequin turned out to be the body of an elderly woman who killed herself, the Tampa Bay Times reported.
Ronald Benjamin, a desk clerk at the Peterborough Apartments in St. Petersburg, Florida, was outside at 4:30 a.m. on Wednesday when he saw the body on the ground. Thinking it was a prop left by someone pulling an April Fools' Day prank, Benjamin asked someone to help him toss the mannequin into a dumpster.
Several hours later, other employees at the apartment complex realized the mannequin in the dumpster was the body of a 96-year-old resident who jumped to her death from the 16th floor, the Tampa Bay Times reported.
"It's all I've thought about all day," Benjamin, 61, told the newspaper. "I haven't slept all day."
The woman's face was rubbery and looked like a Halloween mask, Benjamin told the newspaper. He asked a teenager who was delivering newspapers with his mother to help with the load. The teenager obliged, and he and Benjamin lifted the woman into the dumpster.
"I'm telling you, I swear to God, the face looked like a rubber mask," Benjamin told the Tampa Bay Times.
The body was light, Benjamin said. After tossing the mannequin he saw blood, but figured it wasn't real.
"If I thought for one instant it was a real person I would have called the police, my manager, everyone I could think of," Benjamin told the newspaper.
Police said the woman, whose name was not released, left a suicide note. Complex residents told the Tampa Bay Times the woman was from England and came to the U.S. after World War II.
No charges will be brought against Benjamin, police said.
"Because of the height the woman fell it actually might have caused her features to be distorted, and possibly not look human to the unsuspecting eye," St. Petersburg police spokesman Mike Puetz told the newspaper.
But Benjamin lost his job at the complex.
"Now I have to go to the unemployment office," he told the newspaper.
