A horrified wife searching for some Christmas decorations found her missing husband's mummified corpse stuffed inside a closet eight months after he disappeared. Jennifer Maedge reported her husband Richard, 53 from Illinois US missing on April 27 last year after he called her to say he was leaving work early.
When she arrived back home she discovered his car on the driveway and found his wallet, keys and cards inside the house but the dad-of-three was nowhere to be seen. Police searched the cramped 'sewer-like' property which was described as a 'hoarder home' but could not find him, the Mirror reports.
It wasn't until December 11 last year, Jennifer suddenly made the grim discovery of her husband's body months after he went missing. She recalled: "I decided to put the Christmas tree up, and I was looking for a tote of Christmas ornaments, and that's when I discovered him."
She said she had rarely visited the closest as it was stuffed with tonnes of rubbish. On Thursday, it was revealed in a coroner's report that Richard had died by suicide and his body had become mummified by the time he was discovered.
According to the coroner, once the body is past the stage of decomposition, it won't give off any strong smells which may have helped to find Richard earlier. Officers had been out to search the home twice after reporting a strange odour in the house.
However they put the unpleasant smell down to tons of rubbish inside the home and a plumber was even hired to fix one of the sewer pipes outside to help get rid of the smell. According to Jennifer, the smell eventually subsided. Richard's sister, Marilyn Toliver, has slammed the police for not finding her brother earlier and believes officers could have done more.
However, she is thankful that the family can now have some closure surrounding her sibling's tragic death. Marilyn said: "Even though we didn't want the outcome that we had, it's still an outcome that we can put him to rest."
Troy police rejected Marilyn's claims and said they undertook thorough searches of the home and the surrounding areas. The coroner concluded: "There were no other injuries found during the autopsy examination or evidence found that would indicate anything nefarious regarding Mr Maedge's death."
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