An avid Disney fan was found dead by suicide Tuesday at Walt Disney World hours after she vanished from her Illinois home, according to police and a report.
Summer Equitz, 31, died at the Contemporary Resort, one of more than 25 hotels on the sprawling Florida property, the Daily Mail reported.
A missing persons page was created on a Reddit thread for Disney fans, apparently by a relative of Equitz, before her death, urging people to call the cops if they saw Equitz at the resort.
A Disney World guest died in an apparent suicide by the monorail Tuesday, police said. Ron Buskirk/imageBROKER/Shutterstock
Equitz — who reportedly honeymooned at the theme park during happier times and announced she was pregnant late last year — left her home in Naperville and booked a flight to Orlando without telling anyone, the now-deleted thread said.
“She booked a flight there without telling us, unfortunately,” the relative wrote.
Summer Equitz, 31, died at the Contemporary Resort Hotel, one of more than 25 hotels on the sprawling property — just hours after she vanished from her Illinois home. facebook/summer.equitz
The Orange County Sheriff’s Office told Entertainment Weekly Tuesday that the death was “an apparent suicide” but did not identify Equitz by name.
But the local medical examiner’s office identified Equitz, adding she died by suicide from multiple blunt impact injuries.
On social media, Equitz had shared photos of herself at Disney parks — even one of her meeting the company’s CEO Bob Iger in April 2021.
“My life has peaked,” she reportedly wrote under the image.
Original social media reports suggested a person died after being struck by the resort’s monorail, which runs right into the center of the Contemporary, connecting it to Disney World’s Magic Kingdom park and several other hotels, but officials denied that narrative.
According to one of her relatives, Equitz booked a flight to Disney World on the day of her death without telling anyone. facebook/summer.equitz
“[The guest] was NOT struck by the monorail, so that is erroneous information,” the Orange County Sheriff’s Office said.
Police on Wedsday declined to release further information, citing a “suicide case.”
It wasn’t immediately clear where exactly Equitz’s body was found, and Disney didn’t return an inquiry from The Post.
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The sad incident comes roughly a week after a woman in her 60s died after riding the Haunted Mansion attraction at the entertainment behemoth’s only other US resort, Disneyland in California.
She suffered an unknown medical episode — possibly a heart attack — while on the spooky attraction.
On social media, Equitz had shared photos of herself at Disney parks — even one of her meeting the company’s CEO Bob Iger in April 2021. facebook/summer.equitz
In September, Kevin Rodriguez Zavala, 32, also died after riding the Stardust Racers roller coaster at the Universal Epic Universe theme park, which is also in Orlando but not owned by Disney.
In another theme park mishap, a toddler was discovered on a Hersheypark monorail track nearly 100 feet above ground in Pennsylvania in August.
Suicides at “The Most Magical Place on Earth” happen with surprising frequency, Jim Hill of the “Disney Dish” podcast told The Post.
“There’s this weird phenomenon where people who are severely depressed but want to have that one last good happy family memory will go to Walt Disney World,” Hill said in 2022.
“They’ll deliberately book a room at the Contemporary Resort, which is 14 stories tall. And after that happy family time, they will throw themselves off the building.”
Though the suicides often go unreported, a similar incident occurred in 2016 when a guest reportedly jumped from one of the resort’s ledges.