A 19-year-old woman has tragically died after falling from the roof of an abandoned hospital building in Atlanta that was used as the filming location for Hawkins Lab from Netflix’s Stranger Things.
Leah Palmirotto fell from the five-story Briarcliff Building shortly before 1 a.m. on Friday, 19 December. According to Fox 5 Atlanta, she was exploring the fenced-off property with friends. Emergency services were called to the scene, but she was sadly pronounced dead at the scene.
The Briarcliff Building, originally a psychiatric hospital built in the 1960s, was later bought by Emory University in the 1990s. Over the years, it has been used in numerous productions, most notably serving as Hawkins National Laboratory in Stranger Things. It has also appeared in shows such as The Vampire Diaries, Ozark, and WandaVision. The building has since been removed as a filming location on the Emory Film Management website.
Hawkins Lab via Netflix
Despite being closed to the public, the building has become a popular spot for urban explorers. Investigators believe Leah and her friends gained access by climbing over a chain-link fence. Police are still working to determine exactly what caused the fall.
Her father hopes that her death was ‘instant’ and she ‘felt no pain’
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(@leah_palmirotto)Leah, originally from Florida, was known for her love of exploring and photographing abandoned buildings. A family friend set up a GoFundMe page, which shared that she also adored attending car shows to photograph vehicles and was a vibrant, popular young woman during her school years.
Her father, Todd Palmirotto Jr, spoke to Fox 5 Atlanta about the tragedy. He said he believes Leah had visited the Briarcliff Building before and reflected on the risks of exploring such places. “Going to these places are dangerous, being with people that you really don’t know, like we just kind of always had something in the back of our mind that something could happen,” he said. He added that he hopes his daughter’s death was “instant” and that she “felt no pain” when she fell.
The Briarcliff Building remains fenced off, and security has reportedly been increased following this tragic accident. A vigil is planned to honour Leah’s memory.
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