3 bodies found in adjoining Florida hotel rooms
VENICE, Fla. - Three people were found shot to death inside a central Florida gulf coast hotel on Friday morning, reports CBS affiliate WTSP.
It happened in Venice, about an hour drive south of Tampa.
No motive was released, but investigators say it appears as if one of the guests at the Fairfield Inn Suites Hotel killed two others before apparently taking their own life.
The relationship between the victims was not immediately clear. Hotel staff reportedly discovered the bodies.
"Two of the victims were discovered in one room, and the other victim was discovered an adjoining room," said Lt. Charlie Kaspar, "So there are two rooms that are currently cordoned off in the hotel. The rest of the hotel is operational."
Detectives spent the afternoon collecting evidence inside the hotel and reportedly took several pictures of a silver Hyundai parked in front.
Hotel guests say they were shocked to find out what had happened, and that they didn't notice anything unusual overnight.
"I didn't hear anything, I was asleep in the hotel and came down and saw the police everywhere," Kerry Craver told WTSP. "I had no idea what was going on. It was kind of scary."
Bill Swanson and his wife were in a room just down the hall from the crime scene.
"We both couldn't sleep very well, and we were up till at least two, and we never heard anything," said Swanson.
Investigators were working to notify next of kin before identifying the shooting victims. But the crime scene, they say, appeared to be isolated, with no ongoing threat to other hotel guests or anyone else.
"At this time there's no reason to be concerned for the general public," said Lt. Kaspar.