Thanksgiving came and went at Seattle's downtown YWCA, but days after the holiday, a flyer about the building's turkey dinner remained taped to resident Monique Sehorn's door.
A neighbor noticed the flyer and asked building staff to check on Sehorn. By the time someone did, it was too late.
The Saturday after Thanksgiving, a YWCA employee unlocked the door and discovered the 44-year-old woman's body in the bathroom. Sehorn had died at least three days earlier. The firefighters who arrived that afternoon could do nothing for her. A police officer came and called Sehorn's mother to tell her the bad news.
It was dark and women had gathered in the hall when men in white jackets finally took her out on a gurney, the neighbor said. The police officer's report states Sehorn apparently died of natural causes. But the King County Medical Examiner's Office is still waiting on lab results to say for sure.
Cathy MacCaul, a spokesperson for the YWCA of Seattle-King-Snohomish Counties, said the employee was conducting a wellness check when she found Sehorn. She said staff at the building, located at Fifth Avenue and Seneca Street, enter rooms when residents go missing.
It's not the first time a resident's death has gone unnoticed for days. Residents of the building, which houses a women's shelter and 116 subsidized rooms for the extremely poor, say they can't believe it has happened again.
Almost a year ago to the day, another resident, India Valdez, died over Thanksgiving weekend. A staff member didn't find what was left of her until seven weeks later, on Jan. 14. And that was only after residents who knew Valdez demanded staff look in on her ("Life and death at downtown building," RC, Feb. 17-23, 2010).
Before the discovery of Valdez, Julia Rawlings lay dead in her room three days until staff found her on Dec. 15, 2009.
This time, two days after the incident, the YWCA posted notices to residents' doors offering them grief counseling for the loss.
Sehorn leaves behind two children, Jason Sehorn, 25, and Kim Mosher, 21, and a legacy of struggle.
In 1994, court documents show, she took out a restraining order on a violent husband who had given her black eyes, kicked her in the head and dislocated her shoulder at their Kirkland home.
She left him and tried to make it on her own, but suffered from bipolar disorder and post-traumatic stress. She held jobs on and off, but in 1999 and in 2006, landlords evicted her from apartments in Auburn and Kent.
Residents at the YWCA said Sehorn, who they called Monica, was an outgoing person. She liked to read and enjoyed motorcycling with friends who came to visit.
She was also devoted to her son, a neighbor said. When Jason got into trouble with the law, Sehorn started a letter-writing campaign to judges that helped reduce his sentence.