LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- A woman was arrested after she was found living with a corpse in a Bullitt County motel, police said.
According to court documents, 45-year-old Nicole McFall was arrested by officers with the Hillview Police Department just after 6 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 9.
Police said they were called to Room 218 of the Quality Inn in Brooks, Kentucky, to check on the welfare of someone inside. But the welfare check was not the only reason officers were called to the hotel.
"The operators of the hotel did notice a smell coming from the area of where the room was," said Det. Scott Barrow, with Hillview Police.
Barrow said hotel management may not have suspected foul play because they thought they had an idea of where the odor was coming from.
"I think there was like either a storage closet or a cleaning closet or something also in that area," he said. "And they thought that maybe it was something coming from their storage closet, maybe an old bucket of mop water, something of that nature."
But shortly after entering the hotel, police suspected they were at the scene of a death investigation.
”They immediately noticed, in the area of the room where they were conducting the welfare check, a smell emanating in that area out into the hallway,” said Barrow
Inside the room, police made a gruesome discovery.
”When the officers went inside the room, they noticed a male laying on the bed that was covered up with a sheet," said Barrow. "And they also noticed that the male had advanced stages of decomposition. There were several candles in the room, attempting to mask the smell inside the room.”
Police said McFall had been living in the motel room with the man, who has not been publicly identified. She allegedly told police she'd been in the room with the body for five or six days.
According to police, McFall said she knew the man was dead, but didn't know what to do.
McFall is charged with abuse of a corpse, failure to report the death of a person, theft of services and tampering with physical evidence.
Right now, police don't know how the victim died. Detectives are waiting on the results of an autopsy and toxicology report.
”There did not appear to be any signs of immediate trauma that we could see on scene,” said Barrow.
McFall is currently being held in the Bullitt County Detention Center and is scheduled to be in court later this week.
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