El Paso, Texas (KTSM) – Imagine you’re sleeping in your bed and start to hear what sounds like rain, and even feel something dripping on your face. However after turning on the lights, you find the water is actually blood.
That’s what happened to Ana Cardenas, an El Paso woman who woke up to the disturbing discovery of blood on her face that had seeped through the ceiling while she was asleep.
Cardenas woke up around 4 a.m. to the sound of something dripping. When she got up to see what the noise was, what she thought was rain was actually blood splattered across the walls, her bed and her body.
Cardenas had slept with the ceiling fan on and the blood had seeped through right above the fan, and the blades of the fan then caused the blood to splatter around the room.
“It grossed me out, I was in shock, I thought this isn’t real this is a dream, wake up. I called maintenance and they said are you sure and I said blood is falling on me,” Cardenas said in Spanish.
The blood, which covered parts of her bed, walls, furniture and even her hair, was coming from her upstairs neighbor. Cardenas said it was a man who had died.
“The firefighters knocked down his door and the body was laying exactly where my fan is underneath. He had carpet but the blood seeped through to my ceiling,” Cardenas said.
Cardenas said police determined her neighbor died from natural causes and had been decomposing for about five to six days.
“They took the fan down and a pool of blood came down,” Cardenas said.
Cardenas said she stayed at a hotel for a few nights but now continues to battle Cielo Vista Apartment management for compensation for her damaged property.
“I told them my bed is covered in blood and they told me they’re sorry but the insurance won’t pay it,” Cardenas said.
She said she did not have renter’s insurance since it was not required.
KTSM walked through her apartment after it was disinfected. The ceiling had been removed, but flies, and a foul smell still lingered.
KTSM also contacted the apartment front office but only got voicemail after multiple attempts.
Cardenas said she is traumatized and can’t eat, sleep or be in peace since the incident. She also said she wants a medical exam to ensure she doesn’t have an infection.
“It was awful, an awful impact,” Cardenas said.
She said she did not renew her lease, which was up after living there for a year and eight months, but she continues to search for an apartment in her budget.
A GoFundMe fundraiser was created to help Cardenas recover the loss from her damaged property.