Who was Joshua Connell? Horrifying video shows teen teetering on hotel railing before PLUNGING to death
A CCTV footage showed 19-year-old Joshua James Connell walking on the edge of a wall near a hotel swimming pool during a party in Phuket, Thailand, on Wednesday afternoon.
According to a report by The Sun, the footage showed that the Australian backpacker threw his hands in the air, and tip-toed along a narrow white railing. However, when he reached the end of the railing, he lost his balance and slipped, plunging around 50ft to his death.
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At around 5.45 pm local time, people nearby heard a loud thud and were shocked to find Connell on the tin roof of a café below the hotel. He was rushed to the hospital immediately. However, due to severe injuries he suffered in the fall, he was soon pronounced dead.
"I had just opened my shop and I heard a loud thunder sound. I thought a car had crashed or there was an explosion in their kitchen. People gathered around the restaurant and saw the foreign man on the roof. He was unconscious so someone called an ambulance. Everyone was shocked that he fell down and died," said resident Ning Tanyaporn.
Police Lieutenant Colonel Kokiat, who is leading the investigation, said that the officers received the emergency call about a foreign man who had fallen from a hotel and they arrived at the crime scene in 5 minutes, near about 5:50 pm local time, till when Connell was already taken to the hospital where he was confirmed dead.
"The deceased fell from the hotel adjacent to the restaurant, wearing shorts and without a shirt. The roof of the restaurant hut was shattered and several tiles were on the floor. The deceased's legs were twisted and he had wounds on his head,' he said.
The investigating officer said that although they don't think anybody else was involved in the death, they've reviewed the CCTV footage and are now interviewing hotel staff about Connell's behavior leading up to the incident and trying to find out the reason behind him climbing the wall.
Currently, the body is undergoing an autopsy at the Patong Hospital, and the Australian Embassy is in contact with Joshua's family, as per reports.
Even though Patong is home to the province's bustling 24-hour adult nightlife and the most vibrant district of Phuket, accidents like this keep happening. On May 17, a 22-year-old Australian man called Billy James Simmons fell to his death from a hotel on the same island and officers found drugs and alcohol in his room. Days later, Russian webcam model Evgenia Smirnova, 37, plunged from an eighth-floor balcony of a hotel in Phuket in the early hours of May 31, 2022.