Police in Panama City Beach, Fla., remain baffled as to what caused a 44-year-old Marietta woman to plunge to her death from a 14th-floor balcony Tuesday.
About 7:30 p.m., Michelle Haley landed on the third floor of a parking deck at the Laketown Wharf condominiums.
"Investigators are still working and talking to people, but we don't suspect any criminal activity, leaning more toward some type of accident," Police Chief Robert Harding told the AJC on Wednesday.
Haley was in Panama City Beach with her husband, Todd, and 17-year-old son, Judd, a football and lacrosse player at Harrison High School. When she fell, her husband was in the condo talking to a friend while her son had gone out to get something to eat, Harding said.
"Apparently she was in the bathroom, they heard the hair dryer going," Harding said. "Then they don't hear the hair dryer anymore. The husband doesn't see her, he walks out on the balcony. Apparently she's a smoker. He doesn't see her out there. He looks over and sees her on top of the parking deck.
"Nobody heard anything, nobody saw anything," Harding said, adding the husband's friend confirmed that account.
The balcony railing is intact. There are no video cameras on that side of the building, Harding said. The coroner will do a full toxicology exam, he added.
Condo resident Gabrielle Garrison told The News Herald that five-foot guardrails surround the balconies. She said she heard screaming seconds after the fall.
"It gave me chills," she told the paper.
Michelle Haley worked as office manager for Todd Haley & Associates, manufacturers' representatives for the kitchen industry.
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