Woman arrested after staying in a Bullitt County hotel room for days with a deceased man

HILLVIEW, Ky. (WAVE) – Hillview Police have a mystery on their hands after they discovered the decomposed body of a man in a local hotel room on Wednesday. They want to know why the woman sharing his hotel room, stayed in the room for days without calling police.

“It doesn’t appear that a normal person would stay in a room with a deceased person for several days,” said Det. Scott Barrow of the Hillview Police Department. “There doesn’t appear to be any reasons for her doing that. So again, her mental status could come into play later on, but she didn’t appear to be suffering from any kind of mental illnesses.”

Police arrested Nicole McFall, 45, he man’s apparent companion. McFall allegedly told police she knew the man died but continued to stay in the room for 5 or 6 days. She said she did not call for help because she did not know what to do.

McFall burned candles trying to mask the odor.

Barrow said the couple had been staying at the Quality Inn in Brooks for weeks. When a mysterious smell began permeating the second floor of the northern Bullitt County hotel, staff thought it might be coming from a storage room. When they didn’t find anything, the call went out to Hillview Police.

“When the officers entered the room, they noticed a male laying on the bed that was covered up with a sheet,” Barrow said. “They also noticed that that male had advanced stages of decomposition.”

The Bullitt County coroner has identified the victim as Charles Scheitlin, Jr., 57, of Indiana. The cause of death was not released.

“At this point that’s still under investigation, awaiting autopsy reports from the medical examiner,” Barrow said. “There did not appear to be any signs of immediate trauma that we could see on scene. So right now we’re waiting for medical examiner reports, toxicology reports and things of that nature to come back.”cFall is charged with abuse of a corpse, failing to report the death of a person, theft of services and tampering with physical evidence. She is being held at the Bullitt County Detention Center on a $5,000 cash bond and will be in court for a preliminary hearing on November 17.

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