Auditions at America's Got Talent took a shocking turn as the wife of a man who was auditioning for the show turned up dead at their Hollywood hotel. INSIDE EDITION has the story.
He's a singer who's hoping to crack the big time, and he brings shocking new meaning to the expression "the show must go on!"
Joe Finley dreamed of becoming a star on America's Got Talent, TV's top-rated show last summer.
Over the weekend, Finley checked into the Millenium Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles where the auditions for the new season of Amercias Got Talent were being held. When he woke up Saturday morning, his wife, Laura was gone. He reported her missing to the cops, and then went to his audition!
Then came the stunning news. Laura, his wife of 26 years, had plunged four stories to her death in the hotel stairwell.
Finley reporteldly admitted to police he and his wife had taken ecstasy the night before. He was arrested for drug possession and named "a person of interest" in his wife's death. Finley denies any involvement in Laura's death.
INSIDE EDITION's Jim Moret reports from outside the gated community where the Finley family lives on the outskirts of Los Angeles. Joe Finley told INSIDE EDITION that his late wife was his soul mate, and the inspiration behind his music, and that this whole experience is a living nightmare that seems never-ending.
Finley's mother, Mary Ann, says there's no way her son had anything to do with his wife's death, and that they've been in love since they were teenagers.
"They were happy as could be. She was telling him what to say at the audition. She's about getting breakfast in the morning, that's why, when he woke up he wasn't shocked that she wasn't in the room."
Another hotel guest found Lauren Finley's body. She was pronounced dead at 8:25 a.m. on Saturday.
It's not yet known how Finley's audition for America's Got Talent worked out. But right now, he has bigger concerns than his music career.
Mary Ann said, "Someone did something to my daughter-in-law."
No cause of death for Mrs. Finley has been released, though police sources say it appears to be accidental.
