Man said to have been living under tree
Morgan Hill – A 41-year-old homeless was found hanging from a tree near the Caltrain station Wednesday morning. Juan Saramiento was found by a friend between the construction site and the railroad tracks just south of the station, according to Morgan Hill police Sgt. Dave Myers, who said it appeared the man was living under the tree, at least temporarily.
Ryan Rosen, a friend who said he frequently “passed by and visited,” found Saramiento.
“I was sitting out here in front of the tree, reading a book, facing the opposite way,” Rosen said. “I had seen him sitting there, on the log. When my friend came, we did notice he had the rope around his neck, but we thought he wanted attention. He did things like that sometimes.”
Rosen said Saramiento had been depressed, but he wasn’t sure what was bothering him, and he said he didn’t mention that he might kill himself.
When he and his friend looked back at Saramiento sometime later, he was kneeling on the log and hanging from the tree. “His face was kinda bluish, and we thought we needed to call,” Rosen said.
The call to police came in at 11:18am, Myers said. Paramedics were called, and when they arrived, they pronounced Saramiento dead at the scene.
Officers found him on his knees with the rope around his neck tied to the tree branch.
The area surrounding the tree serves as a homeless encampment, with several tarps draped over branches, shopping carts parked in its shade, piles of clothing strewn around with some personal belongings. Several aerosol cans, including one of WD-40, were discarded in the area, along with empty bottles and cans, rubber gloves, even a bit of rubber tube fashioned into the shape of a pipe. A pile of bread rolls covered the ground near one of the shopping carts, which contained an empty five-gallon water jug and what appeared to be a well-worn textbook, among other items.
