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A murder investigation was launched after a dead body was found under the Tibetan hotel bed of a tourist who smelled a strange odor.
The traveler, identified only as Mr. Zhang, was notified of the discovery two days after switching rooms at the popular Lhasa hotel on April 22, according to China's state-affiliated media via CNN. Zhang said he was told of the discovery by a group of police officers after being summoned back to the original room.
“I asked them what happened and they told me someone had died. So I asked them where,” Zhang told Shangyou News via CNN. “They said under my bed.”
Police told Zhang that they'd opened a murder investigation after the discovery but said he wasn't a suspect as the body had already been lying under the bed days before his arrival. The case has received major attention from state-affiliated news outlets across China, which included video footage of a subsequent arrest of a suspect who had been traveling by train to Lanzhou at the time being shared.
Zhang told Shangyou News that he left Tibet as soon as he finished helping authorities with their investigation and was still reeling from the shock of the incident.
“I stay up until 2am to 3am every morning and the slightest movement would wake me up,” Zhang said via CNN. “It left me in a bad mental state.”