Vancouver police say a woman whose body was found on the sidewalk outside the Regent Hotel Friday night fell from a sixth floor window, and that her death is considered suspicious.
The woman, identified as 50-year-old Verna Simard, was discovered dead in the 100-block of East Hastings Street shortly before 8 p.m.
The Vancouver Police Department's Major Crime Section was called to investigate, and determined she had plunged six storeys to the street below.
Officers have secured a suite on the sixth floor and interviewed her long-term boyfriend, who was believed to be inside the when she fell.
Police have not said that he is a suspect in her death.
A number of witnesses have also been interviewed, including some who say they heard arguing before Simard fell.
Witness Chris Evans, who knows the deceased, says he heard someone yell out "help me" shortly before Simard was found dead, and saw two men cover up a window in the hotel with a sheet.
"How can you fall out a window?" Evans said. "And why would you scream ‘help me'?"
Simard was a bartender at the Empress Hotel, and friends told CTV News she was often seen coming to work with bruises.
Friend Darwin Stevens described her as a "beautiful, caring, loving person" who would not have jumped to her own death. "I don't believe that for a minute, that she would commit suicide," Stevens said.
One year ago, a 22-year-old woman was found dead behind the same hotel. Police say there is no connection between the two cases.
Investigators said Ashley Machisknic's death was the result of a fatal fall from the hotel -- though her family called for a deeper probe into her death, believing she had been pushed by a drug dealer.
Anyone with information is asked to call the VPD at 604-717-2500 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.
With a report from CTV British Columbia's Lisa Rossington
