SALT LAKE CITY – A suspicious death of a woman found in a downtown motel is now being investigated as a homicide. Police are hoping the public can help them find two “persons of interest.” They’ve been identified as Kristie Marie Hansen and Javier Rodriquez Pena.
Police were called to the Gateway Inn near 800 West and North Temple just before nine this morning, after someone walking past the room reportedly saw a dead woman inside. Detective Greg Wilking says, “There was somebody from outside the room who called it in. it wasn’t somebody inside the room.”
When officers arrived, Wilking says they could tell the death was suspicious right away. “It doesn’t look like a drug overdose or a natural death.”
Detective Greg Wilking says there wasn’t a lot of clues to work with initially. He also says doing an investigation in a hotel can sometimes be trickier since the people coming and going to the scene frequently change.
Police are trying to interview everyone who may have been inside or passed by that hotel room. “How she came to be here, and all of that is going to be part of that investigation,” he says. However, they have not identified the victim, or said how she may have died.
