Jump from 5th floor of parking garage kills woman

The woman, who was pronounced dead at the scene, plummeted some five stories from the atop the parking garage at the corner of Maple Avenue and Martin Luther King Boulevard to the sidewalk below at around noon. The woman’s injuries were extensive, authorities said.

Butler County Coroner’s Investigator Andy Willis said the woman’s name would not be released until after an autopsy is performed today.

Her body, covered by a bright white sheet, lay on the sidewalk in the 300 block of Maple Avenue for about an hour Thursday as police blocked off the area from a crowd of 30 onlookers who quickly gathered.

Maple Avenue from Second Street to MLK Boulevard was shut down for about 90 minutes as investigators combed the scene and allowed vehicles inside the garage to exit.

A West Chester Twp. woman who was stopped at a traffic light at Maple and MLK facing the garage said she witnessed the incident. The witness, who was visibly shaken and did not want to give her name, said she saw the woman “just fall forward off the roof.”

She clutched her chest and shook her head as she talked to police officers about what she saw.

“At first I thought it was some type of a drill or training or something. I started looking for police,” she said.

When she realized it wasn’t a drill, she said she immediately began honking her car’s horn to get the attention of a Butler County sheriff’s deputy who was crossing the street nearby.

Another woman, who works inside the Government Services Center, said she too witnessed the incident, but declined to give her name or comment further.

Kevin Heinrich, who manages the parking garage, said he didn’t see or hear the incident.

However, Heinrich said he went outside to investigate when he saw “a bunch of cars stopping.”

The woman’s death “was instant, I can tell you that,” said Heinrich, referring to severity of the injuries he observed.

The 600-space parking garage, which sits behind the Government Services Center at 315 High St., was built in 2000. Authorities said they couldn’t remember an incident like this happening there before.