Police: Girl caught in noose slipped off tub

ST. LOUIS -- A teenager who got her neck caught in a noose while working at a suburban St. Louis haunted house was acting in a bathroom horror scene when she apparently slipped off the tub, according to a police report.

The Jefferson County Sheriff's Department released a report Wednesday saying the 17-year-old girl's neck somehow became caught in the noose that was being used for visual effect. It said officers found shoe prints on the sides of the tub and scuff marks on the wall.

She is hospitalized at St. Anthony's Medical Center, though she was moved out of the intensive-care unit earlier this week. The girl's name has not been released. A hospital spokeswoman, citing privacy laws, declined to discuss her condition.

The injury happened Thursday night at Creepyworld, a haunted house near Fenton where the girl, a senior at Fox High School, worked as an actress whose job was to scare guests.

Another 17-year-old worker and a maintenance employee found her hanging from the noose. It wasn't clear how long she had been hanging.

The maintenance worker told police he jumped into the tub to support her head, then cut down the rope and caught her as she fell. The girl wasn't breathing. The maintenance man called for help and another worker arrived. He checked for a pulse but couldn't find one so he performed CPR, the report said. The girl began breathing on her own and gasped. An ambulance then arrived and took her to the hospital.

A man answering phones at Creepyworld declined an interview request. Creepyworld's website bills it as the largest scream-park in the St. Louis area, with seven haunted houses in one location.