Gatineau Police are investigating the murder of a young woman inside a high-end hotel last night. It prompted the hotel to go into lockdown overnight. Police were called around 8 p.m. to the Four Points Sheraton on Laurier across from the Museum of History after reports of gunshots. Police say it was a hotel guest who heard the shots and called police. When they arrived, they found a 25 year old woman dead and no idea who killed her or where the suspect was. Her family is in shock. Outside the hotel this morning, there was police tape and police cruisers; an odd site at the high-end hotel directly across the street from the Museum of History.
Stephen Mabe from Columbus, Ohio, and his companion were staying at the hotel last night. He says a murder was the last thing he would have expected here.
‘To be honest, I’m from the states we see a lot more of that,’ says Mabe, ‘I just was surprised coming here to Ottawa. It is so quiet and it just happens we're here on vacation and this happens.’
Gatineau police were called to the Four Points Sheraton around 8:00 last night, after someone in the hotel reported hearing gunshots.
‘A victim was found with injuries and found dead after transportation to the hospital,’ says Cst. Andrée East with Gatineau Police.
Police are not releasing the woman's name but family members did confirm the victim as 25-year-old Christine MacNeil. Her stepsister Natalie Jones says police called them at 4 a.m. this morning to break the news.
‘She was an amazing person and loved by everyone,’ Jones said over the phone. She says she has no idea what happened to her stepsister and that the family is still trying to process the news.
Police put the hotel in lockdown after the discovery of the body. Then went door to door to alert hotel guests like Ron Madzia, staying at the hotel on business from London, Ontario.
‘They checked everybody’s room,’ he said, ‘they checked identification to make sure you were the right guest in the room.’
Charles Burroughs says he had heard the shooting happened on the fourth floor of the hotel, ‘I was on the 7th floor,’ he told reporters, ‘and I didn’t hear anything.’
Those guests who were not in the hotel at the time of the shooting and lockdown had to spend the night somewhere else.
Melissa Blais is from Quebec City, ‘When I got back to the hotel to go to sleep,’ she says, ‘I couldn’t get in.’
The lockdown at the hotel ended around noon on Tuesday. Only the floor where the shooting happened remains off limits as police continue their investigation. Gatineau's Major Crime division is handling the investigation. An autopsy will be conducted in Montreal Wednesday.
