Dawn in Seville. I arrive at Santa Justa in the early morning. Briefcase in hand, I prepare to undertake another investigation of an accident, unaware of what I was about to encounter.

Following my routine, I stop at the station's cafeteria for breakfast. While enjoying my coffee and toast with oil, I glance over the case in question. It apparently involved a domestic accident with some strange overtones. It didn’t seem like the case of my life, rather just another one on the list.

I grabbed my work briefcase and went out into the street, quickly noticing the pleasant temperature typical of Seville's spring. I decided to walk to the house where the incident occurred, located on Avda. Kansas City, albeit quite far, almost at the end of it. As I walked, I watched the awakening of a large city, paying special attention to the cyclists and skaters who passed close by me on the bike lane.

On the landing of the building, a middle-aged woman with a sad demeanor was waiting for me. After the appropriate introductions, we took the elevator to the floor in question. It was a spacious, well-designed eighth floor, exterior, and bright. Three bedrooms, all perfectly furnished.

The lady in question began to narrate the events:

The flat belonged to her mother, a healthy octogenarian who lived alone and managed quite well because she was in perfect physical and mental shape.

Every morning her daughter would call to see how she was and they would chat for a few minutes, but one day she called and there was no answer. She tried again and again, to no avail. Nervously, she called her husband and they headed to the flat. To their great surprise, they found that the flat's key was turned from the inside. They opened the door with another set of keys and entered.

They started calling out to her mother, going through the whole flat, but no one answered. How could it be that she wasn't there when the door was locked from the inside? They looked in each room, bathrooms, kitchen, living room, terrace, with no result.

They began to get nervous and didn’t know what to do when the husband's eyes fell on a Murphy bed, next to the wall of the guest room that had its window wide open. He noticed that the furniture was not completely closed, a bit of fabric, possibly from the bedsheet, was peeking out. Without a second thought, he opened it. To do so, he had to use all his strength as the opening mechanism seemed to have gotten stuck. To his surprise, he found his mother-in-law inside, lifeless.

Technical Explanation:

As a result of the cost-cutting measures that have become popular these days, the manufacturer decided to eliminate, in a new model released to the market, a safety bolt that locked into the opening and closing mechanism of the bed when it was fully open.

This model was distributed by retail stores in the sector throughout the EU until this accident came to light.

It seems that when the lady was sleeping peacefully in her Murphy bed, by turning several times, she positioned herself right at the inner edge of the bed's base/mattress, at which point the bed closed, trapping her inside the furniture structure. According to the autopsy, the deceased showed clear signs of asphyxiation.

Conclusion:

Be careful about which bed you sleep in because a complete product recall could not be carried out. Many of the retail stores to which the manufacturer had sold this model closed due to the severe economic crisis we have suffered in recent years, making it impossible to locate them, as well as the end consumers who purchased them.

I hope that from now on, before using a Murphy bed, you check its anchoring system and if you are not sure about it, better not to try it!

The profession of accident investigation, in which I have been working for more than twenty years, has allowed me to approach many horrors and errors that arise from human actions and the inventions we create. I will continue to share real cases that I have investigated, not only out of curiosity but also because it can help to prevent them from happening again, especially in our surroundings.