(The following story by Bill Brand appeared on the San Jose Mercury News website on September 24.)
OAKLAND, Calif. — Police are investigating the apparent suicide of a passenger on Amtrak’s Coast Starlight passenger train this morning. The investigation has forced delay of the train’s departure for Los Angeles until about noon, an Amtrak spokeswoman said. The victim has been identified only as a man in his 60s from Oregon.
Amtrak employees told Oakland police that when the train arrived in the station at 10 a.m., the passenger failed to exit his sleeping compartment. Crew members tried to wake him to tell him the train had reached Oakland, which was his destination. They discovered he was dead. Cause of death appeared to be a single gunshot wound to the head, police said. The wound appeared to be self-inflicted, Oakland Police Sgt. Walker Bardsley said.
A note to his family was found nearby, Bardsley said.