Body Found on Muni Bus After Shift Ended (w/updates)
Update (12:00 p.m., April 5, 2010):
SF Weekly reports that the S.F. Medical Examiner has determined Christopher Feasel’s cause of death: cocaine and methadone overdose. Still, as the Weekly’s Joe Eskenazi points out, many questions remain.
Update (1:40 p.m.):
The ex-wife of the man found dead on the Muni bus told the SF Examiner that she had not seen him for over a decade and that addiction was the reason they separated, according to the Examiner’s update story. Feasel had a record of mostly petty crimes in San Francisco and San Mateo counties over the last 12 years, according to the Examiner. He did not have a fixed address at the time he was found on the 5-Fulton.
Read the rest of the Examiner’s update.
Original post:
My apologies for starting off your Monday morning this way: a man’s body was found on the 5-Fulton hours after the bus was parked in the Muni yard on Presidio and Bush, the SF Examiner reports.
More from the Examiner:
The deceased was identified by the Medical Examiner’s Office as 37-year-old Christopher Feasel of San Francisco. Investigators have not determined the cause of death and police said the body showed no obvious signs of trauma.
Workers discovered Feasel around midnight Friday at the bus yard at Presidio Avenue and Bush Street. The bus had been in the lot since 6:30 p.m., police Sgt. Lyn Tomioka said.
We’ll keep you updated with more information as we find out.
Did he have proof of payment on him?
Yeah, reading this definitely made my stomach turn. I ride the 5-Fulton pretty much everyday…
Creepy.
For the driver’s sake, hopefully the guy snuck on after the bus was at the depot. Crazy!
Midnight Meat train#2 I shouldnt of said that but I make jokes to lighten things up. Really there are sick people in this world always keep your ears and eyes open, don’t be afraid to scream or yell kick do what ever you have to do to get away or at least you put up a fight.
A 5 Fulton bus left Transbay Terminal shortly after 4 p.m. Friday, already crowded by the first stop, Fremont and Market. In the back of the bus was a “sleeping” passenger in the rear back corner, wearing a scruffy dark nylon jacket. How many people saw him slumped over, and didn’t give him more than an annoyed glance? That’s what I did, and got off the overcrowded bus to catch another. So the driver didn’t check the bus at the end of his shift, nor at the beginning that run, or how many other previous or subsequent runs?? Did he board when the bus was sitting idle at Transbay Terminal? Or much earlier?
I’ve spoken to authorities about what I saw. Maybe others would speak up with any observations, and give that poor guy the respect a fellow human deserves. (And yes, I’m ashamed of myself. What if …?)
Wow, so you think it’s the same bus/guy? I think I too have ignored passengers slumped over looking as though they are asleep. What did the authorities say when you spoke to them?
Hey Eugenia —
So I phoned the Richmond District Police, which claimed to have no report (and no interest in my information). The officer bounced me to Homicide (which “handles all deaths”), which then transferred me to the SF Medical Examiner.
We had a long conversation … he couldn’t definitively say if it was the guy, but based on where he was found and what he was wearing and the time of day, yeah, apparently it was. At that point he had no info on the exact time the bus departed from the Transbay Terminal — a key link to putting the puzzle pieces together. I explained that the guy looked to be sound asleep, so it wasn’t likely he’d just gotten on the bus, unless it had been parked for quite some time at Transbay Terminal (doubtful, especially given that it was the commute hour, when they float through pretty quickly). Clearly, the driver was oblivious, or really didn’t care if some guy was hunched over in the back of his bus.
He did say it likely wouldn’t have made a difference if I’d acted more assertively. I honestly didn’t notice if he was breathing, but the way he was positioned his chest was not visible, so I s’pose I wasn’t really suspicious there was a bigger problem here. Guess I’m naive, but when you don’t see signs of distress, the mind doesn’t want to go to a place of wondering if this guy’s even breathing at all. Still, wouldn’t some other passenger(s) who sat nearby through downtown and beyond have been a little curious why he didn’t even flinch?? Just a sad, sad story.
Curious thing, though. The gentleman I spoke with had a voice and demeanor that made him a dead-ringer for the guy (Robert David Hall) who plays Medical Examiner Dr. Albert Robbins on CSI — the original version, that is. Sort of a soft-spoken, intelligent professor type. Trippy.
Love your name. Eugenia was my mom’s name … Eugenia Marie.
Regards,
Theresa Smith