Body of 39-year-old man found dead inside Planet Fitness tanning bed after 3 days

Employees of an Indiana Planet Fitness gym were shocked to discover the dead body of a 39-year-old man inside of a tanning bed after he first got inside three days previously.

The Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department said officers were called to the gym at Hardegen Street on Nov. 11 just before 8:30 a.m. on a report of a body found. The Marion County Coroner's Office said the body belonged to Derek Sink.

There was a foul smell inside the building that worsened as she approached the tanning rooms.

“We were deeply saddened by the passing of one of our members, and the franchise owner is working with the local authorities in their investigation," read part of a statement from a spokesperson for the gym. "We are working closely with our local franchisee to ensure they are upholding those brand protocols."

The man's aunt told WTHR-TV that he was wearing an ankle monitor that led police to conclude that he had not left the gym when he got inside the tanning bed on Friday, Nov. 8.

A woman who had been at the gym before police arrived said there was a foul smell inside the building that worsened as she approached the tanning rooms.

Sink's mother, Karen Wetzel, told People magazine that he had gone to the gym with his girlfriend and his daughter but that they had left him to go shopping and couldn't find him when they returned. She also said that he had struggled with a drug addiction and that a syringe was found with his body. She believed a toxicology report might find fentanyl in his system.

"I'm just trying to keep myself together until this funeral is done, and then I'll have my fall-apart," the grieving mother said.

In a similar story from August, the body of a woman was found dead at her work desk at the Wells Fargo corporate office in Tempe, Arizona. The 60-year-old's body was at the desk over the weekend and was discovered after her boss emailed her and she didn't respond. Police said no foul play was suspected.

Officials later said she died from “sudden cardiac death in the setting of myocardial fibrosis."

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