ORLANDO, Fla. — Orlando Urbina Núñez was working as a valet at The Ritz-Carlton Orlando in the early hours of Jan. 9 when famed comedian Bob Saget arrived at the hotel, having performed in Jacksonville earlier that night.
Urbina Núñez later told detectives he and Saget spoke for about 10 minutes and the comic seemed “fine” and was “very friendly (and) outgoing” as they made small talk, according to an Orange County Sheriff’s Office report released Tuesday. The valet asked to take a photo with the comedian, who obliged.
It’s likely he was the last person to see Saget alive.
“That hit me like a brick wall,” Urbina Núñez said in an interview Tuesday. “To think I was just talking to him, it was hard to believe.”
Witnesses who saw Saget in the hours before his body was found in his Orlando hotel room told investigators they noticed nothing wrong, describing him as upbeat, friendly and talkative, according to the report, OCSO’s final synopsis of its probe of Saget’s death.
Saget, 65, had performed the night before at the Ponte Vedra Concert Hall in Jacksonville, where venue workers described him as “energetic” and “high on life” while interacting with fans and staff.
“At no point did I think anything was wrong,” said Richard Stanford, a production coordinator who spoke to investigators, according to the report released Tuesday. “He chatted with everyone. He had a good time talking with everyone.”
The famed comedian and former “Full House” star was found dead hours later, lying on the bed in his hotel room at The Ritz-Carlton Orlando, after his family told hotel security they couldn’t reach him ahead of his scheduled flight to Los Angeles.
There were no signs anyone else had been in his room and the only sign of trauma found was “slight swelling” on his left eye, the report said.
An autopsy by the Orange-Osceola Medical Examiner’s Office determined Saget’s death to be from accidental blunt force trauma to his head, probably from an “unwitnessed fall.” There were no signs of drug use, and toxicology tests were negative.
The report released Tuesday revealed that detectives were unable to determine where Saget fell to cause his injury. Chief Medical Examiner Joshua Stephany said it appeared that Saget’s head had struck “something hard, covered by something soft.”
Cpl. Brian Meadows, a homicide investigator, wrote in the report that the tables, countertops and nightstands in the room “were thought to be unlikely due to the fact that they would have lacerated the skin.”
“The counters in the bathroom and the shower stall were ruled out for the same reason,” Meadows added. “Most of the chairs and couches were thickly upholstered and were too soft to have caused the type and extent of injury Mr. Saget suffered.”
Stephany told investigators a fall onto a carpeted floor, like those in the hotel room, was a possibility, the report said. Saget could have gotten hurt within a few hours to a couple of days before he died but “would have exhibited significant signs that something was wrong,” the medical examiner told investigators.
The OCSO report’s release came the day after a judge agreed to issue a permanent injunction forbidding authorities from releasing photos and footage of Saget’s body and personal effects, after his family filed a lawsuit to keep autopsy and investigative records confidential.
The court order also required the final investigative report to be redacted.
Before his Jacksonville show, Saget performed at the Hard Rock at Universal CityWalk. Neither show appears to have been recorded, one witness said, noting that the comedian said he was working on a “full comedy show” at the time.
Saget thanked the audience on social media after his show in Jacksonville, where he unexpectedly performed a nearly two-hour set while only being scheduled for an hour. “I’m happily addicted again to this (expletive),” he said in his final post.
Stanford, the production coordinator, said the set ran long because Saget and the audience were enjoying themselves — “the magic was there.”
Urbina Núñez, the Ritz-Carlton valet, said he’ll never forget his chance meeting with the comedy icon.
“It’s a memory I will cherish forever, because of who he was when I was growing up,” he said.
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