‘Blood was pouring down’: Texas woman woke up to blood dripping from her apartment ceiling

EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) — Imagine you’re sleeping in your bed and start to hear what sounds like rain, and even feel something dripping on your face. But when you turn on the lights, the water is actually blood.

That’s what happened to Ana Cardenas, an El Paso, Texas woman, who woke up to the disturbing discovery of blood on her face that seeped through the ceiling while she was asleep.

Cardenas says she woke up around 4 a.m. to the sound of something dripping. When she got up to see what the noise was, she said what she thought was rain was actually blood splattered across the walls, her bed and her body.

Cardenas had slept with the ceiling fan on and the blood seeped right where the fan was. The blood traveled towards the blades of the fan causing the splatter on her bedroom walls.

“It grossed me out, I was in shock, I thought this isn’t real this is a dream, wake up. I called maintenance and they said are you sure and I said blood is falling on me,” Cardenas said in Spanish.

The blood covered parts of her bed, walls, furniture and even her hair. After calling 911, investigators found it was coming from her upstairs neighbor who had been dead for days. Cardenas said he was between 55-70 years old.

“The firefighters knocked down his door and the body was laying exactly where my fan is underneath. He had carpet but the blood seeped through to my ceiling,” Cardenas said.

Cardenas said police determined her neighbor died from natural cause and was decomposing for about 5-6 days.

“They took the fan down and a pool of blood came down,” Cardenas said.

Cardenas said she stayed at a hotel for a few nights but now continues to battle Cielo Vista Apartment management for compensation for her damaged property.

“I told them my bed is covered in blood and they told me they’re sorry but the insurance won’t pay it,” Cardenas said.

She said she did not have renter’s insurance since it was not required.

NewsNation affiliate KTSM walked through her apartment after it was disinfected. The ceiling had been taken out, but flies, and a foul smell still lingered.

KTSM also reached out to the apartment front office, however only reached voicemail after multiple attempts.

Cardenas said she is traumatized and can’t eat, sleep or be at peace since the incident. She also said she wants a medical exam to ensure she doesn’t have an infection.

“It was awful, an awful impact,” Cardenas said.

She said she did not renew her lease which was up after living there for a year and eight months, but she continues to search for an apartment in her budget.

A GoFundMe fundraiser was made to help Cardenas recover the loss from her damaged property.