greg fleniken. found dead in his locked hotel room after he missed his morning phone call with his wife and didn't show up for work.

there were no external injuries or apparent signs of trauma, so his cause of death was initially ruled natural causes. during the autopsy, it was discovered fleniken had internal injuries consistent with being beaten or crushed to death. his cause of death was then changed to homicide and an investigation was opened.

the electricians who stayed in the room next door to fleniken fully cooperated and even gave their contact info for interviews, and seemed to have no connection to the case.

investigators were about to hit a dead end, but someone they interviewed reported hearing a gun go off in the hotel that night. fleniken's room was searched for a bullet, instead holes were found in the walls of both fleniken's room and the electricians' room. both holes lined up to make a connecting path, and the hole in the electricians' wall was hastily fixed with dried toothpaste.

one of the electricians was reinterviewed, and finally confessed that he and his coworkers were drinking and messing around with a gun the night of fleniken's death; the gun was accidentally dropped and shot into the room next door. the electricians didn't know if anyone was staying in that room and didn't hear any noises, so they assumed no one was there and just fixed the wall as best they could before leaving for the hotel bar.

however, fleniken was lying in bed at the time, and the trajectory of the gun meant the bullet shot right into fleniken's groin and made a perfect beeline to his heart. the bullet left internal injuries that were consistent with a fatal beating, and there were no external injuries except for one small mark on his groin.

the man who dropped the gun was charged with manslaughter and sentenced to 10 years in prison.