While death should’ve been the end of suffering for a young woman, it ironically marked the beginning of a tragic fate for her. And the justice system terribly failed her.
Maria Elena Milagro de Hoyos was only 20 years old when she was diagnosed with tuberculosis at the U.S. Marine Hospital in Key West, Florida, in April 1930. There, she met the 53-year-old Carl Tanzler, who developed an obsession for her despite already having a wife and two kids. This obsession would later cause the most disturbing unpunished crime in history.
Tanzler, born in Feb. 1877 in Germany, had been working in the Key West hospital as a radiology technician since 1927. Despite not being a physician licensed to treat Elena, he was adamant about curing her and even administered homemade specialty tonics and illegally brought X-ray equipment to her home in an attempt to treat her there.
Elena remained under treatment for tuberculosis for the next 18 months, and Tanzler kept showering her with gifts and confessed his love for her throughout. But she rejected all his advances since she was still in love with her estranged husband. Tragedy struck when she succumbed to her illness on Oct. 25, 1931, at the age of 22.
Tanzler’s disturbing reaction to Elena’s death
Following her death, Tanzler paid for Elena’s funeral and even purchased a pricey stone mausoleum in Key West Cemetery for her burial. He kept visiting her grave for the next two years, where he would talk and sing to her for hours. But one evening, Tanzler reportedly claimed that Elena’s spirit spoke to him and asked him to take her to his home. And on one quiet night in April 1933, Tanzler crept into the cemetery, exhumed Elena’s body, and carried it home.
Even more disturbingly, he covered the rotting corpse in silk soaked in wax and plaster, created a wig from her own hair, and dipped the body in disinfectants and perfume to cover the odor of flesh. He even stitched her limbs back to her torso with a piano wire, stuffing her body with rags, dressed her, and kept her in his bedroom.
Tanzler then lived with Elena’s body for the next seven years, treating her as if she were alive. Reportedly, his neighbors spotted him dancing with the corpse through his open window on multiple occasions, alarming Elena’s family. The young woman’s sister then confronted Tanzler at his home in Oct. 1940, and reported the horrific sight to the police.
The flawed law that set Tanzler free despite his horrific crime
When the police confirmed that Tanzler had unlawfully exhumed Elena’s body and kept it at his home, he was charged with “wantonly and maliciously destroying a grave and removing a body without authorization.” The trial made headlines, and Tanzler’s statements were as confusing as his crime.
On the stand, he spoke of his plan to use an airship to take Elena “high into the stratosphere, so that radiation from outer space could penetrate Elena’s tissues and restore life to her somnolent form.” (via Atlas Obscura) But despite all the outrage that the case created, the 63-year-old was freed of all charges because the statute of limitations on his crimes had expired.
Tanzler’s obsession saw no end, and poor Elena became a thing of public display
The autopsy of Elena’s remains also made a shocking revelation of possible necrophilia, as a paper tube was found inside her to serve as a makeshift vagina. However, Tanzler was never charged for it. Even after being freed of all charges, he requested to keep Elena’s body, but was denied.
Elena’s constructed remains were then put on public display at a local funeral home, which saw over 7,000 visitors. She was then buried again in an unmarked grave to prevent Tanzler from stealing the body again. While Tanzler returned to live with his wife in Zephyrhills after the trial, his obsession still saw no end. He created a life-sized effigy of Elena and lived with it until his death on July 3, 1952.
