Elderly Woman Found Face Down in Hotel Hot Tub Dies - KMSP-TV

76-year-old Lydia Cohn of Westland went to the Detroit Hilton Garden Inn Sunday afternoon. She came alone to get away. She was resting on the first step of a hot tub to relax. In her room was more than $11,000 in cash she had in a shoe box. Family told us another $30,000 was in her purse near the hot tub.

A housekeeper says she knew Cohn as a visitor to the hotel who had stopped by before. She affectionately called her "grandma." Tanganyika Walker says she kept her eyes on Cohn to make sure she was okay and left for just five minutes.

"I ran in there and then I just freaked out because I pulled her out. I pulled her out. I'm giving her CPR. I'm so upset. I'm crying, and it's like I wasn't doing it hard enough because some of the water came out, but it wasn't splashing out like it should have."

Cohn was found face down in the hot tub. The housekeeper tried CPR, but she couldn't be saved.

Now Cohn's husband, who is battling cancer, wants the money back and to know what happened. His niece, Sherry Paulus, tried calling Detroit Police.

"I get people that tell me they don't know what I'm talking about, and I ask them to look it up in the computer, that there must be a report number associated with the case, and I got nowhere."

Our sources provided us with a police report that we have now given to the family. In the meantime, they want just a simple phone call from somebody with the department telling them what they know.

Cohn's death appears to be from natural causes, but the medical examiner will make a final determination and then property will be released to the family.

"That was her life savings. That was her money, their money, and my uncle is ill and he would like it back," Paulus said.

An officer told us that he will call the niece and continue the communication between the family and the department.