maggie pederson managed the malibu riviera motel, and louis curson was the night manager.er to use your credit card, it's our policy, everybody has to show, you know, a valid i.d. >> reporter: she wasn't around just before midnight, but curson was. he told us he heard the ruckus in room 14 from his office next door, ran in and threw water on a man's face, to try to revive him. >> i got on top of him to try to rouse him. >> reporter: but he says nothing worked, so he called 911. >> 911. what's your emergency? >> reporter: once paramedics arrive, louis says he started snapping photos. he says this is bathum loaded into the ambulance. meanwhile outside room 14, the police are searching a white tesla. this photo curson took of a license plate matches bathum's. inside the room, there's drug paraphenalia scattered about. and the spot, he says, where that man lay unconscious, still soaked from the water poured on him minutes earlier. >> as soon as they left, i went on the computer and searched the name that was rented under the room. >> reporter: the room was rented under the nam