An Australian grain executive on a business trip in San Francisco appeared as if he had been met with some kind of violence, and was put into an induced coma after arriving in a local hospital last week. But the SFPD says surveillance images suggest otherwise.
Grain Producers Australia chief executive Colin Bettles was staying at an unnamed hotel in San Francisco on July 4 and had apparently just arrived in town when the incident occurred. As Australian news outlet The Age reports, Bettles "dropped his bags at his hotel before heading out for a pizza with some colleagues" last Thursday, and then never made it back to his hotel.
His significant other in Australia did not raise alarms for several days, reportedly, because she had been working in an area with spotty cell reception. It was only after Bettles did not make it onto a scheduled flight to New York that she reported him missing, and called on a longtime friend and Bettles's former employer, former deputy prime minister Michael McCormack, to raise alarms through Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs.
Bettles's family believes that he was attacked on his way back to his hotel on July 4, and he was left in the street with "severe injuries to his head and a fractured eye socket." A passerby called 911, and Bettles was taken to the hospital. An earlier report suggested that Bettles was found without identification, and without his cellphone, but that turns out not to have been the case, the SFPD says.
"He’s an all-round good guy," says McCormack, speaking to The Age. "No one deserves what has happened to him."
The SFPD has not confirmed where Bettles was staying on July 4, but they have said that Bettles was found on Market Street, injured, with his belongings intact — he had his wallet and cellphone when he arrived at SF General.
Bettles was in the intesive care unit for five days but it sounds like he may be out and is now "recovering," according to McCormack.
There seems to have been some lack of communication within the SFPD, because a spokesperson said Wednesday that the department was still seeking help from the public about the case, but on Thursday they said there is no case, and they do not believe that Bettles encountered any violence.
As KRON4 reports, the SFPD is particularly incensed by a report from the UK Daily Mail saying that Bettles was "bashed by thugs."
"The investigation revealed that Bettles was found unconscious on the 1000 block of Market Street shortly after 11 pm on July 4. Paramedics transported him to San Francisco General Hospital," the SFPD said in a statement. "SFPD reviewed surveillance video from the scene and found no indication that Bettles was assaulted or the victim of a crime. He was in possession of his property at the hospital."
This post has been updated with new information from the SFPD.