NEW YORK _ Peter Knoll lived a life of exceptional luxury and extraordinary leisure.
He once bought a $290,000 Aston Martin on a whim. He collected gold-plated watches worth nearly as much.
The son of a furniture magnate, Knoll is believed to have never worked a day in his life.
But all of that privilege couldn't shield him from a tragic fate: Knoll froze to death inside his multimillion-dollar Upper East Side townhouse this winter.
His official cause of death was hypothermia. Police found Knoll in bed in his heatless E. 78th Street brownstone steps from Central Park and former Mayor Michael Bloomberg's mansion.
The story of Knoll's unlikely death is tangled and complicated.
But at its core it reveals the vulnerability of someone who is older, ill and isolated, someone who is struggling to take care of himself and unwilling or unable to seek help.
Knoll's death also shines a light on the fraught relationship between public utilities and the city they serve _ and the startling lack of accountability when tragedies occur.
It has already triggered a state investigation.
The absence of heat in his five-story home was something he never talked about to his small circle of friends and acquaintances _ but it wasn't a secret to all.
Con Edison knew Knoll had no gas. The utility had, in fact, known he was without gas since 2014.
But that dire information never made it to a city agency or nonprofit organization equipped to check on the 75-year-old grandfather.
So Knoll languished in a gap in the city's safety net. In a cruel twist, the fact that he lived in a private home he owned made him even more vulnerable, experts say.
Older, ailing residents living in apartment buildings have a cluster of neighbors to rely on when heating problems arise and city agencies like the Department of Housing Preservation and Development are ready to swoop in.
"When you're frail and living alone in a private house and you don't have anyone checking on you and you don't have access to services, it's a disaster waiting to happen," said Shyvonne Noboa of Sunnyside Community Services in Queens.
