Is Disney World Restricting Public Information About Deaths on Its Property?

A harrowing scene witnessed by multiple Walt Disney World Resort guests at Disney’s Port Orleans Resort on May 16 has gone completely unacknowledged in the public record. The person who has been tracking emergency activity on Disney property for nearly a year thinks they know why.

Guests Describe What They Saw

The story that sparked the latest round of questions came from X (formerly Twitter) user @SHMILY_ohana, a guest staying at Disney’s Port Orleans Resort on the evening of May 16. The Disney Park guest reached out to the well-known scanner monitoring account @WDWActiveCrime after noticing a commotion outside their room:

Nothing for tonight at Port Orleans? We heard commotion out our door and see ems running throwing an unresponsive person on a stretcher with the Lucas device (they did NOT look alive) and take off. Then they roped off the area with crime scene tape.

Nothing for tonight at Port Orleans? We heard commotion out our door and see ems running throwing an unresponsive person on a stretcher with the Lucas device (they did NOT look alive) and take off. Then they roped off the area with crime scene tape.

— Marie (@SHMILY_ohana) May 17, 2026

A Lucas device is a mechanical chest compression tool used in cardiac arrest situations. A second Walt Disney World Resort guest, @jessbullock89, responded to confirm the account:

Came here to ask the same thing…

Came here to ask the same thing…

— Jess B (@jessbullock89) May 17, 2026

Neither guest identified which of the two Port Orleans properties — Riverside or French Quarter — the incident occurred at. Walt Disney World Resort did not issue any statement about the evening’s events.

The Silence From the Scanner

What separates this incident from similar ones reported over the past year is the complete absence of any public emergency response record. @WDWActiveCrime, which has been logging and publicizing scanner activity near Walt Disney World Resort since July 2025, found nothing on file for Disney’s Port Orleans Resort that night. The account put forward a pointed theory on X:

I’m starting to get the impression that they are limiting their public calls for Disney Property since I started. They haven’t had a ‘Man Down’ call for months. I’m sure Disney put pressure on them.

I’m starting to get the impression that they are limiting their public calls for Disney Property since I started. They haven’t had a “Man Down” call for months. I’m sure Disney put pressure on them.

— Walt Disney World: Active Calls (@WDWActiveCrime) May 17, 2026

Between October and November 2025, at least five guests died at various Walt Disney World Resort locations within a span of weeks, drawing international media attention and raising questions about safety and transparency at the Central Florida vacation destination.

The first death involved Summer Equitz, a 31-year-old self-described Disney superfan from Illinois who died after falling from an interior balcony at Disney’s Contemporary Resort and had been reported missing before her death. On October 21, 2025, a guest in their 60s died following a medical episode at Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort.

Days later, 28-year-old Matthew Cohn died after falling from an exterior balcony at the Bay Lake Tower building at Disney’s Contemporary Resort — he had checked into a 12th-floor room the night before and paid in cash. In early November, two more guests died of natural causes following separate medical incidents at Disney’s Pop Century Resort and Disney’s Saratoga Springs Resort.

None of the five incidents involved foul play. The majority were first brought to public attention through a combination of guest accounts shared on social media and @WDWActiveCrime’s scanner monitoring, before eventually being picked up by news organizations around the world.

Whether the silence surrounding the May 16 incident at Disney’s Port Orleans Resort reflects a genuine policy change in how emergency calls near Disney property are handled — or simply an anomaly — remains unknown. Walt Disney World Resort has not commented on the matter.

The Disney Dining team sends our thoughts to those involved in the incident at Disney’s Port Orleans Resort on May 16.

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