Dead man slumped on balcony mistaken for Halloween decoration

October 16, 2009 | 11:51 am

A 75-year-old dead man sat decomposing on his Marina del Rey balcony for days because neighbors thought the body was part of a Halloween display and didn’t call police.

Mostafa Mahmoud Zayed had apparently been dead since Monday with a single gunshot wound to one eye. He was slumped over a chair on the third-floor balcony of his apartment on Bora Bora Way, said cameraman Austin Raishbrook, who owns RMG News and was on scene Thursday when authorities found the body.

Neighbors on the 13900 block of Bora Bora Way told Raishbrook that they noticed the body Monday “but didn’t bother calling authorities because it looked like a Halloween dummy," he said.

"The body was in plain view of the entire apartment complex [and] they all didn’t do anything,” Raishbrook said. “It’s very strange. It did look unreal, to be honest.”


Officials with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department could not immediately be reached for comment.

Coroner’s officials were called to the complex at 6:42 p.m. Thursday, according to Capt. John Kades of the county coroner’s office. Physicians will examine the body today to determine the cause of death.