79-year-old “Marcel H.” from Liege, Belgium, according to initial medical tests, passed away in November 2012 of an asthma attack, as reported by the Carters News Agency. The landlord stated that the couple, Marcel and his wife, had not paid their rent since last year. His wife was so distraught over what happened that she did not report the death of her husband and continued to sleep with the body until Belgian authorities made the strange finding on Tuesday, Nov. 19. The delinquent rent was what led to the investigation into the bizarre situation. “I have seen dead people before… but never in this condition,” the landlord was quoted as saying.
The widow had been sleeping in bed next to her dead husband’s decomposing corpse for one year until the authorities made the horrific find this week, according to the Huffington Post. The body had mummified. It takes a week or so for a body to reach this condition. The neighbors had never reported a foul odor, and according to Breitbart.com the 69-year-old widow had not taken out the garbage recently.
Philippe Boxho, a pathologist at the Forensic Center of Liege articulates that, “A body can mummify in a dry, warm environment,” according to the Carters News Agency. “This is not the first time I have made a discovery of this kind.” I find this particular comment disturbing only in that it is completely news to me- that individuals would sleep next to a corpse until it rotted and mummified. In short I find the prospect unpalatable to say the least.
The body of another man who had committed suicide in the cellar of his home in Belgium was found mummified after 14 months, which is 433 days after his death.
Last year, after she had been cashing in his Social Security checks after his death, a Michigan woman who was later charged with forgery was found living with her boyfriend’s mummified body months post mortem. This woman had insisted that she missed him and simply didn’t want to be alone.
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