Oct. 14–A New Yorker who jumped to his death Sunday at the San Francisco Marriott Marquis and the assault of a female hotel worker found in a luxury suite at the Mission Street tower hours after the suicide are being investigated as related incidents, police said Tuesday.
Alexander Damhuis, 26, of Brooklyn, N.Y., was identified as the hotel guest who committed suicide around 10:30 a.m. Sunday, according to the city medical examiner's office.
The man jumped from a high-rise roof of the hotel at 780 Mission St. and landed on a fifth-floor deck, police said. He died at the scene.
Hours later, at about 5 p.m., police were notified that a female hotel employee was missing, said Officer Grace Gatpandan, a police spokeswoman. Officers searched the building and found the worker in a penthouse suite of the hotel suffering from life-threatening injuries, Gatpandan said. She was taken to San Francisco General Hospital, where she was listed in critical condition.
The woman is employed at the hotel as a housekeeper, KTVU reported.
While searching the penthouse where the housekeeper was discovered, officers found evidence linking the assault to Damhuis' suicide. Citing the ongoing investigation, Gatpandan declined to specify what the evidence was.
The Marriott Marquis, dubbed the "Jukebox Marriott" because of its tower's resemblance to a jukebox, released a statement on the two incidents, but hotel officials released few details because of the active police probe.
"We can confirm that we had two incidents at the hotel Sunday; one involving a guest death and the other involving a hotel employee," Frank Manchen, the hotel's director of sales and marketing, said in a statement. "Our thoughts and prayers are with all those impacted by these two terrible events."
Damhuis was in San Francisco attending the Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutic Convention at Moscone Center, where former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger was a special guest speaker on Monday.
Damhuis' LinkedIn profile shows he worked as a medical education analyst for the Cardiovascular Research Foundation in New York City. He was previously employed by the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism, and the Food Network.
Jenna Lyons is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: jlyons@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @JennaJourno
