Dallas Woman Found Dead in Lauded Chicago Hotel
Police say Brianna Gardner, 22, had been shot in the head.
Aug. 14, 2012 — -- A Texas woman with a gunshot wound to the head was found dead Monday in an upscale hotel in downtown Chicago, only blocks from the city's famed Magnificent Mile.
The body of Brianna Gardner, 22, was discovered in a seventh-floor room at the Whitehall Hotel, lauded by Fortune Magazine as "one of the eight great small hotels" in the country, according to the hotel's website.
A 911 call around 10 a.m. Monday said the Dallas woman was unconscious and nonresponsive. The Chicago Police Department has classified her case as a homicide.
Investigators were seen Monday leaving the Whitehall with what appeared to be a piece of luggage and other evidence, according to ABC's Chicago station WLS.
The hotel, which bills itself as "one of the best luxury hotels in Chicago," has declined to comment.
Gardner was arrested last week for alleged soliciting for prostitution, police said.
"She was observed by officers standing in the street and on the sidewalk flagging down passing vehicles containing lone male occupants as well as lone male pedestrians walking by," according to a Chicago PD arrest report.
Gardner, police said, had a court date of Oct. 4.
Separately, a women police identified as a prostitute was found dead in another boutique hotel in the city in October.
The body of Sarai Michaels, a Wisconsin woman, was discovered at the Felix Hotel downtown with multiple stab wounds.
Chicago Police told ABC News today that an arrest had been made in Michaels' case, that the case is now closed and that "there is nothing to indicate" her case is related to Gardner's death this week.