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Man who died at parking garage ran to his death

Erica Robbie
The Aspen Times

The 24-year-old man who fell to his death at a Snowmass Village parking garage last month was under the influence of drugs and alcohol, officials have confirmed, and was seen on surveillance video acting erratically before the 30-foot fall.

Angelo Mowery of Denver was found by police laying in the Carriage Way exit of the Base Village parking garage on the evening of March 9. Snowmass police are awaiting the final autopsy and toxicology results, but Chief Brian Olson said Friday they know from the initial coroner’s report that Mowrey “was impaired … by drugs and alcohol.” He did not say which drugs or at what levels.

Surveillance video obtained by police shows Mowery parted ways with another man in the plaza at 7:47 p.m. and then can be seen walking in circles, bending over at the waist numerous times and collapsing for about 30 seconds. He got up and repeated the behavior, and collapsed a second time, “this time for several minutes on the plaza. Several minutes later, several people, possibly a family with small children, appear to walk by and around Mowery,” according to Snowmass Officer Franz Zedlacher’s report.



Mowery got up the second time and “in an apparent full sprint, runs off by himself” toward the ledge over the Carriage Way exit of the garage, according to Zedlacher’s report of the video.

“Mowery then goes out of view of the camera and is not seen on the surveillance video footage again.”




Officer Tom Rockwell was one of the first on the scene and found one set of fresh footprints in the snow in the plaza above the exit.

“The footprints went towards the (stone) wall. … There were no footprints returning through the snow from the wall,” Rockwell’s report states. “I walked to the wall, careful not to disturb the snow, and looked down over the fence. I was directly above where Mowery was found.”

A lift operator interviewed by police said Mowery and another man exited the gondola after dowloading about 30 to 45 minutes before police responded to the scene. The lift operator told police that Mowery was on the gondola floor and his foot “appeared to be stuck in the door.”

According to Zedlacher’s report, the lift operator said Mowery “was very clearly under the influence of drugs. … He told me that he knew what somebody under the influence of drugs looks like.” The lift operator reported the incident to his Aspen Skiing Co. supervisors but said he did not call police.

Surveillance video from Capital Peak Lodge shows Mowery was walking with the man down the plaza, under the sky bridge and toward the fire access gates, where they parted ways, according to a police report. Olson said police talked with Mowery’s friend in the following days during the investigation.

Police received a 911 call at 7:59 p.m. from a bus driver at the transit center after he came upon Mowery’s body.

Zedlacher performed CPR and another officer attached a portable defibrillator to Mowery before paramedics arrived and took him to Aspen Valley Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, according to the report. Mowery’s injuries included numerous skull fractures and an open fracture on his right foot.

The next day, police reported they found Mowery’s vehicle parked in Lot 1 of Snowmass Village, and discovered a “large bottle” of Robitussin cough syrup in the front passenger seat.

According to his Facebook page, Mowery graduated from a New Jersey high school in 2011 and was living in Denver working as an electrician and solar technician. He would have turned 25 on Sunday.