Authorities in New York are investigating a bizarre case, in which a Brooklyn man lay dead in his bedroom for as many as eight years, while his mother continued to live in the home.
The man, who has not yet been identified, probably died in 2008 at age 43, according to authorities. His skeletal remains were discovered Thursday, after his 80-year-old mother was hospitalized. A female relative, police said, was retrieving belongings for the woman when she made the gruesome find.
“She went to the second floor bedroom and that’s when she noticed a dead body ― completely decomposed skeletal remains ― on the floor,” a spokesperson for the New York City Police Department told The Huffington Post on Monday.
The woman notified police and the city medical examiner removed the skeletal remains from the premises.
The man was last seen alive in 2008, according to New York’s WPIX-TV. His family was reportedly estranged from him and had not seen him in roughly 20 years.
The man had been terminally ill, reports The New York Daily News, quoting a police source. Online records indicate the man was previously employed as a driver for a Brooklyn car service.
It remains unclear why his mother, who is also not being identified, didn’t notify authorities of her son’s death.
A neighbor described the woman as a loner who ignored their greetings.
“She never said hello,” the neighbor told New York Daily News. “She always walking down the street with a grocery bag [and] she would walk looking down. Something about her always seemed a little weird.”
The neighbor also said a tan Ford Explorer, possibly belonging the dead man, is parked in the driveway of the woman’s home and has not been moved in several years. Google Earth appears to show the vehicle has remained in the same spot since at least October 2007.
Authorities on Monday told HuffPost they are still awaiting the results of the dead man’s autopsy. Until then, it remains unclear whether his mother will face criminal charges.