Investigation Into Woman’s Fatal Plunge Intensifies

Sheriff’s investigators have intensified their probe of a bizarre death, flying to Texas to chase new leads and dropping a makeshift mannequin 10 stories to reenact a Houston man’s claim that his co-worker fell to her death as the two had sex on a City of Industry hotel balcony.

Robert Salazar, 33, was arrested last week after he told investigators that Sandra Orellana, 27, fell 10 stories while the two were having sex while on a business trip. Prosecutors declined to file murder charges, and Salazar was released.

But Orellana’s friends called investigators this week and said Orellana had told them she was considering filing sexual harassment charges against Salazar, who was her supervisor, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Lt. Ray Peavy said.

So on Wednesday detectives flew to Texas to track down Salazar, who was not at his office. They also tried to reenact Orellana’s fall, even consulting with a Hollywood stuntman and then dropping a mannequin made of fire hose and duct tape from the balcony to test the angle of the fall.

“We’ve put a lot of time and effort into this case,” Peavy said. “He told his side of the story. Hers we have to kind of put together ourselves.”

Salazar’s story, recounted by investigators and an attorney for his employer, is that he and Orellana came to Los Angeles on Nov. 12 after their company, SkillMaster Staffing Services of Houston, bought local firms.

The two checked into adjoining rooms at the Industry Hills Sheraton, had dinner with a client that night, then retired to the bar for drinks. About midnight, they went to Orellana’s room and then the balcony, where, Salazar says, they had sex and Orellana fell. Her half-naked body was found the next day on a veranda, and the death was initially investigated as a suicide until Salazar came forward with his story.

Investigators arrested Salazar on suspicion of murder but released him two days later when the district attorney’s office declined to prosecute, citing lack of evidence. Investigators say Salazar then left for Houston. He was placed on leave by SkillMaster pending an investigation, said attorney Hugh J. Plummer, who is representing the company.

Rape and toxicology tests on Orellana are pending.

As television helicopters buzzed above the Industry Hills Sheraton on Wednesday, investigators dropped the mannequin three times from Orellana’s balcony onto the veranda, using a construction cone and masking tape to mark where her body was initially found.

The intention was to see if Orellana could have fallen in the manner described by Salazar, investigators said. A source said that in each of the three test falls, the mannequin landed away from where Orellana’s body was found.