A late-night adventure inside a decaying TV landmark ended in tragedy Friday after a 19-year-old woman fell to her death while exploring an abandoned building once used as Hawkins National Laboratory in the Netflix series Stranger Things.
Police and fire officials in DeKalb County were called around 1 a.m. to the Briarcliff Building at 1200 Briarcliff Road, an abandoned five-story structure formerly owned by Emory University. Authorities said the woman was pronounced dead at the scene after falling from an upper level.
The victim was later identified as Leah Palmirotto. Officials have not released her hometown. Investigators believe she was exploring the property with friends and that the group likely gained access by climbing over a chain-link fence surrounding the site. It remains unclear how many people were with her at the time of the fall.
CBS News Atlanta
The building is internationally recognized by fans as Hawkins Lab, the fictional government facility featured in Stranger Things, where secret experiments opened a portal to the Upside Down. The structure’s eerie corridors and crumbling interiors have made it a magnet for urban explorers despite posted no-trespassing signs.
One parent told WSB-TV that her son, who explores abandoned places with friends, called her in a panic after the incident, saying he was “in trouble.”
The Briarcliff Building dates back to the 1960s and previously housed the Georgia Mental Health Institute before Emory acquired the property in the 1990s. The university announced plans in 2022 to demolish the building to make way for a senior housing complex. While demolition reportedly began in June, explorers were still entering the site as recently as October.
Emory vacated the property in 2024 and said demolition is ongoing under a private developer. University officials said no-trespassing signs are posted and security measures are being increased following the fatal incident.
The building has appeared in numerous productions beyond Stranger Things, including Ozark, Black Lightning, Sweet Magnolias, WandaVision, and the film Fast Man about astronaut Neil Armstrong. At one point, it was listed among more than 40 Emory-owned properties available for film rentals, though that listing was removed Friday.
The tragedy comes just days before Volume 2 of the fifth and final season of Stranger Things begins streaming on Netflix on Christmas Day, with the series finale scheduled to drop on New Year’s Eve.
