Overview
- Friends and family held a candlelight vigil Tuesday night at Swift-Cantrell Park in Kennesaw to remember Leah Palmirotto, with her father urging teens to avoid abandoned sites.
- DeKalb County police say Palmirotto fell from a five-story vacant structure on Emory University’s Briarcliff campus shortly before 1 a.m. on Dec. 19 and was pronounced dead at the scene.
- Investigators believe the group entered by climbing a chain-link fence; the investigation remains active with no public determination yet on the precise circumstances of the fall.
- Security is now guarding the property, Emory says it plans to enhance protections and has posted trespassing warnings at the long-closed Building A.
- The site, once the Georgia Mental Health Institute, has been used as a filming location for Stranger Things and The Vampire Diaries, and a GoFundMe has raised more than $2,500 for funeral costs.