UPDATED: Orinda Police Respond To Report of Body Found; Cause of Death Unknown

Deborah May 4, 2012 at 10:38 am

Homeless person? Gender? Age? (May he or she rest in peace.)

Jodie May 4, 2012 at 12:23 pm

Please update with more info as you receive it. Although, I imagine you will already have that in your plan. This news is quite disturbing.

Jewelz Tucker May 4, 2012 at 02:35 pm

I live in this neighborhood. Although I am traveling, neighbors have been keeping me updated on the situation. From what I can gather, the gentleman died of natural causes while outside. His body was in the shrubbery.
My condolences to the gentleman's loved ones.

ET May 4, 2012 at 09:51 pm

This seems to be a non-story, other than the volume of the police response. It appears that one of the neighbors in the neighborhood unexpectedly passed away outside near their home/driveway. It is a sad situation, but nothing nefarious. Characterizing it as a "body found in the bushes" makes a good headline, I guess. The police could do a better job communicating to avoid all the speculation.

J.D. O'Connor (Editor) May 4, 2012 at 10:42 pm

ET may be right. But we have learned that some "non-stories" turn out to be "stories," and are worthy of inquiry.

Mike Hayden May 5, 2012 at 01:34 am

Not a non-story. I was there. Yes. A twenty-something year old woman was found dead. She was not in bushes, but against a fence, not 15 feet from Edgewood Rd. I have called Orinda PD myself and cannot get a response. "Not suspicious?" Really.

Robert Strauss May 5, 2012 at 10:52 am

Get lied to much JD?

Deborah May 8, 2012 at 01:04 pm

So odd: A report that it was a gentleman in the bushes, and then, a report that it was a 20-something woman.
So, which one was it? Note: I'm interested more in the fact that there's 2 completely opposite reports, more than anything else. (It's amazing to me, how emboldened people are to lie these days....how they pursue their own agendas and will lie so many lies, in order to achieve that agenda, regardless of how much they waste others' times, (or even hurt others deeply) while they're pursuing those agendas. ) Can't have justice without the real truth....therefore we have little justice today.

Sue Haas May 12, 2012 at 02:58 pm

Agreed here and I saw this as an interesting example of what happens when government operates in a vacuum. This unfortunate event took place, the local news outlet presented what they were able to glean from neighbors with no official declaration from the city. They say they tried without result. Okay. A WEEK later we hear that it happened and get the barest of details relating to the person's passing, though public interest and speculation was left to run rampant --= hence all the variations on "I heard it was a woman, I heard it was a man... etc." Cities need to be more responsive to public inquiry or, as in this case, the public will believe what it wants to hear and the credibility of the city suffers. It is not a good signal to send and could have been cleared up so easily.

Deborah May 12, 2012 at 03:12 pm

Yes, those who want to cover the truth utilize silence and delay as a very effective manipulation method. Most people give up, and go away. And then, the manipulators, who don't want the real truth to come out, win.

Carol Flowers May 13, 2012 at 07:40 pm

Agreed. This could have been handled a lot better.

Carol Flowers May 13, 2012 at 07:53 pm

ET, maybe it's time to phone home? Sorry, I couldn't resist that one. I followed this incident closely as we heard of the investigation early on and, sure enough, saw it covered in Patch as usual. The lack of information and clear lack of official response to an incident which had captured the attention of most of the neighbors in that neighborhood, "non-suspicious" or not, is alarming and makes me wonder at least what else is happening that is going unreported. Reading between the lines I gather there is some disconnect between this news agency and police or city officials in Orinda. And rather than an attempt to "make a good headline" it appears this organization was trying to inform a concerned readership with what they knew. It is clear from the comments that even people who lived nearby were getting different stories. This should have been addressed early on and characterized as what it is, the sad passing of an individual in a public space. Saying nothing, however, just made it appear to be much much more.