ST. LOUIS • With so many port-a-potties downtown, it’s unclear why a homeless man chose one in the 100 block of North Seventh Street to live in.

Employees across the street at the Wainwright State Office Building said he’d been there on and off for weeks, at least since October. He left an impression. They said he would yell sometimes or play music on a radio.

Holly Humfeld tried to help get him into a shelter, but it didn’t work.

“It was horrifying to me,” she said. “I couldn’t imagine somebody being reduced to living in a port-a-potty. What horrifies me even worse is that it’s downtown, in a metropolis. I don’t understand how this can be.”

On Wednesday, somebody noticed that the door to the gray and teal port-a-potty was cracked open. Police arrived on the scene around lunchtime and found the man dead, while at least one group of employees in a nearby office building celebrated the holidays with a feast of roast beef and turkey.

Their attention was drawn to the window, where they watched officials work the scene below.