The Pennsylvania man whose body was found in a Tampa International Airport elevator shaft Friday had flown in with his girlfriend to visit her parents and attend Bike Week in Daytona Beach, his father told the Tampa Bay Times.
Chad Wolfe, 31, arrived in Tampa on a Delta flight from Atlanta just after midnight Friday with his girlfriend, his father, Garland Wolfe, told the Times. The couple planned to meet her stepfather and mother in the Bay area and go to Daytona for a few days.
Airport officials say Chad Wolfe entered an elevator on the third floor of the main terminal soon after his flight arrived and rode it up the seventh floor of the short-term parking garage. Several hours later, Wolfe's body was discovered by maintenance workers in the elevator shaft.
Garland Wolfe told the Times his son often went to the top floor of places he visited to check out the view and have a cigarette, so it wasn't unusual that he rode the elevator up to an outside spot.
When Chad didn't return that night, his girlfriend and her stepfather had him paged over the airport's P.A. system. They waited until about 4 a.m. before calling Garland Wolfe to say his son was missing.
Around 3 a.m., airport maintenance workers reported a malfunctioning elevator a few doors down from the one Chad used, airport officials said. Crews working to fix the problem that morning found Wolfe's body.
Garland Wolfe expressed frustration to the Times about the pace of the investigation by airport police. He said they first told him his son probably pried the elevator doors open, but Garland discounted that theory because Chad Wolfe is only 145 pounds.
Garland Wolfe said his son had a happy home life and showed no signs of depression, the Times reported. The father-son duo ran a small body repair shop in West Newton, Pa., and Chad rode a Harley Davidson motorcycle for fun.
Airport police released few details, but they've said found no signs of foul play.