TOWSON, Md. (AP) âÄî Investigators began the task Monday evening of identifying four bodies found inside a hotel guest room earlier in the day in suburban Baltimore, as well as figuring out how the people died. The bodies were discovered at the Sheraton Baltimore North Hotel in Towson, just north of Baltimore and just inside the Baltimore Beltway, said Baltimore County Police department spokesman Bill Toohey. Police received a call at 2:56 p.m. Monday reporting that four people were dead in a room. The occupants of the room didn’t check out when they were expected to Monday afternoon, Toohey said. That’s when hotel staff unlocked the door and found the bodies. Cpl. Michael Hill, another police spokesman, said it was not known whether all four people were hotel guests. “I can’t release the nature of the scene or, right now, gender, age or race of any of the victims,” he said. “We have not confirmed any identities whatsoever.” Hill also said there was no threat of harm to anyone else in the area. Hill said it would take at least several hours for crime scene technicians and a medical examiner to collect evidence. “We can’t say how this happened or exactly when it happened so to release anything would be very, very premature at this point,” he said. “We don’t know even what kind of investigation we’re dealing with at this point.” Several hotel employees declined to comment. K.C. Kavanagh, spokeswoman for Sheraton Hotels and Resorts, said Sheraton Baltimore North is a franchise property and the owner of the hotel is GF Hotels. “This is just a terrible tragedy and our team is terribly saddened by this event,” Kavanagh said. “We’re doing all we can to assist the police and it’s a matter that’s in their hands at this time.” A call to GF Management Co. in Philadelphia was not immediately returned. Several marked and unmarked police cars and two forensic services vans were parked outside the hotel entrance. Nick Gelston, 30, an electrician from Bel Air, said he stayed at the hotel Saturday night to attend a friend’s wedding. He was back there Monday afternoon because his car had broken down and he’d had to leave it at the hotel. “I hope it was nobody who was with us,” Gelston said, adding that he wasn’t aware that any of the wedding guests had stayed on the 10th floor. Melanie Morris, a cosmetics trainer from Birmingham, Ala., checked into the hotel Monday afternoon and said she was “a little scared” to see police cars outside. “The front desk said there was an incident on the 10th floor and there was no immediate danger to the guests,” Morris said. She said she had stayed at the hotel before and always found it to be pleasant and well-run. Her room cost $167 a night.