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FBI Investigates Hotel Death After Cyanide Report

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Aug 12, 2008 11:55 am US/Mountain

FBI Investigates Hotel Death After Cyanide Report

DENVER (CBS4/AP) ― Federal agents are investigating the death of a man at a hotel after the coroner said there was an indication of cyanide poisoning. The street in front of the hotel near downtown Denver remained closed to traffic Tuesday morning.

The coroner identified the victim Tuesday as Saleman Abdirahman Dirie, 29 of Canada.

Denver police spokesman John White said Monday it appears the man had been dead for several days before his body was discovered Monday morning in a room at The Burnsley Hotel, about four blocks from the Colorado State Capitol.

The FBI said Grant Street remained closed from 10th Avenue to 11th Avenue to allow for investigators' access. A spokeswoman said they were investigating an unknown substance.

White had said Monday there is no evidence suggesting foul play.

Police and a hazardous material team went to the hotel after the Denver medical examiner's office said there was an indication of cyanide poisoning while the autopsy on the man was being conducted.

The hazardous material team found white powder inside a bottle Monday in the man's room in the fourth floor and Denver Fire Department spokesman Alex Paez said they were trying to determine what the substance was.

Chief Deputy Medical Examiner Michelle D. Weiss-Samaras said cyanide smells like almonds. The office was still working on a cause and manner of death Tuesday.

Paez said crews declared the hotel safe, though the room where the body was found would have to be professionally cleaned.

Paez said five rooms of the hotel's fourth floor were occupied and guests there have been relocated to other floors. A four-block area surrounding the hotel had been blocked off but no evacuations were ordered.

Calls to the hotel Monday were not immediately returned.

(© 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

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