Cops: Women in Northeast Philly Hotel Died by Suicide

iStockphoto.com | carlballou

The early details sounded like a recipe for foul play: Two women found suffocated in a cheap hotel room, their hands bound with plastic bags covering their heads.

But investigators now believe that the women both died by suicide, said Sgt. Eric Gripp, a Philadelphia Police spokesman. The women’s bodies were discovered around 12:30 p.m. Sunday inside the Roosevelt Inn, on Roosevelt Boulevard near Napfle Street in the Rhawnhurst section of Northeast Philly.

Both women were in their 30s and from West Virginia. “It’s looking like mutual suicide at this point,” Gripp said. “The room was dead-bolted from the inside.”

Homicide Capt. James Clark told the Inquirer that one victim had both arms restrained, while the other had one hand free; she may have helped her friend first.

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