Detroit's Roosevelt Warehouse was burned, abandoned and the site of a body frozen in ice. 

Also known as the Detroit Public Schools book depository, the Roosevelt warehouse was first used as a post office with the vehicle repair facility still across the street. In a brief history description,

The building caught fire in 1987. The fire and efforts to extinguish it heavily damaged much of the supplies inside, which included science and sports equipment, scissors, crayons, and books, many still unused and in their original wrapping. After the fire the building was abandoned, along with all of the equipment, much of which was undamaged and still usable. The reason why undamaged books and equipment were not salvaged by Detroit Public Schools is unknown.

In 2009 a frozen human corpse was found in the basement in a lift-shaft. It took 24 hours before the authorities attended to the scene.

The man, Johnnie Redding, was found frozen in ice at the bottom on an elevator shaft in 2009, with just his legs sticking out. He was discovered by some young adults playing ice hockey in the basement of the building. In a story by NBC news, the Wayne County Medical Examiner said he died from a drug overdose. As to how he ended up in the elevator shaft is thought that he either fell or was put there after he died by a homeless person who may have been scared of the police. The photo's may be disturbing but can be seen here.

The original article, as well as all other articles written by Charlie LeDuff, have been removed from the Detroit News online library, most likely due to LeDuff being sued for defamation of character by a Female Detroit police officer while working for the paper and for previous accusations of plagiarism. Even a story in The Huffington Post has links that are no longer active. A search for LeDuff will yield stories about him but almost nothing written by him in his 20 plus year career.

Below you will find videos of the ice hockey game in the buildings basement, a song written about Johnnie and a video showing the inside of the building.

 

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