48 Hours: Mystery in Room 813 - Was Robert Salazar involved in Sandra Orellana's death? Details revealed

48 Hours episode Mystery in Room 813 revisited the disturbing death of Houston resident Sandra Orellana in 1996, who was last seen with her boss, Robert Lee Salazar, at the Sheraton Hotel, Los Angeles.

According to 48 Hours, Sandra fell from a height of around 104 feet while she was standing on her hotel room's balcony.

As sources confirmed, Robert was also there with her at the moment and what apparently appeared to be a suicide, soon changed courses putting murder suspicion on the 33-year-old man from Houston. According to Detective Rodriguez's statement to CBS News, the suspicion of Robert was strong. To quote his words:

"There was a lot of trauma. The only thing that I've ever seen close to that is, like, when someone has been hit by a train. The body was n*ked, except for a little camisole top that was on the body. That was concerning to me right then and there at the initial time that I first saw the body."

Was Robert Salazar involved in the death of Sandra Orellana? Details revealed on 48 Hours episode

According to 48 Hours, Robert Salazar was happily married during the time of the incident with two kids. Sandra and Robert were out on a business dinner and coincidentally, it was the former's 27th birthday as well.

As Robert told authorities, the two had four drinks each on the occasion and later drove back to the Sheraton Hotel (where they were staying). As reported on 48 Hours, Sandra was in an intoxicated state and "had several drinks".

Eyewitnesses from the hotel's bar mentioned that Robert and Sandra looked happy "in each other's company and were apparently having a really good time. According to Salazar's statement to the police:

"We're talking about two adult people who were intoxicated and doing things they weren't supposed to be doing."

Salazar further added that they went up to Orellana's room on the 8th floor and got physically "intimate" right before the incident took place. Orellana was reportedly feeling hot inside the room and so she went out to the balcony all of a sudden. She put her leg on the railings, lifted herself and fell over "in one balance".

According to 48 Hours, Robert fled the scene right after the incident took place and did not inform 911, which naturally put a lot of suspicion on him. As per prosecutor Bob Foltz's statement, the whole case was built on "circumstantial evidence" as Robert Salazar was the only eyewitness to what exactly went on in Room 813.

Prosecution tried to pin the death on Salazar, saying that he intentionally got Sandra drunk and tried to get s*xually involved with her. The questions about Salazar's involvement got a foundation when his undergarments were retrieved from Orellena's hotel room, along with one of his shoes from a pair.

But Mike Coughlan defended the case against Robert Salazar, mentioning that the couple was heavily drunk on the night of Sandra's death, which eventually culminated in a terrible accident. To quote Robert's exact words of description of the incident as per 48 Hours:

"She, she turned around. And then all of the sudden she, she grabbed the balcony and pushed herself up to, to turn over. And when she did that, she just went over."

On further investigation and reports from county criminologist Heidi Robbins and Carley Ward (a biomechanical engineer working the case), it was deduced that Sandra could not have been pushed off the balcony, as her body was found lying close to the hotel premises. Finally, as seen on 48 Hours, the jury reached a "not guilty" verdict after a nine-hour-long discussion, as there was clearly no solid evidence that indicated Robert Salazar's involvement in the death of Sandra Orellana.

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