Texas man acting as spring break chaperone fatally falls from Florida balcony

[Teh One Who Knocks]

By Carol Christian - Houston Chronicle


A Dallas-area man accompanying his daughter on spring break has died after falling from a Florida hotel balcony, officials said.

Thomas Saunders, 62, of South Lake, was one of two adult chaperones with his daughter and several of her friends, said Chief Drew Whitman of the Panama City Beach Police Department.

Saunders was by himself when he fell about 9:30 a.m. March 19 from the 12th floor of the Holiday Inn Resort Hotel, 11127 Front Beach Road, Whitman said.

The balcony from which he fell serves as an outdoor hallway and public walkway that guests use to enter rooms, the chief said. It is behind a solid stucco wall that is about 4 feet high, Whitman said.

On the other side of the hotel are individual, private balconies for each room.

At the time he fell, Saunders' daughter and her friends were sleeping, and the other chaperone was on the private balcony, Whitman said.

An autopsy is to be performed Thursday or March 21 in Florida to determine cause of death.

"We're still investigating to see if it was accidental or intentional, or to make sure there were no medical issues that could have caused it," Whitman said.

[perrhaps]

Took one for the team. Good man.