Boy discovers mummified body hanging in Ohio home

[Jesus Malverde]

DAYTON, Ohio – A child exploring a vacant home in an Ohio neighborhood makes a gruesome discovery.

The terrified boy stumbled across the homeowner’s mummified remains.

Michelle McGrath says her 12-year-old son is adventurous.

When he saw an overgrown house in Dayton, he ventured inside.

However, what he saw may have scarred him for life.


http://kfor.com/2014/06/17/boy-discovers-mummified-body-hanging-in-ohio-home/

[liberal N proud]

1. 12 year old boys are attracted to vacant homes

I remember there was this old abandoned house down an old dirt road not far from home, we were always attracted to it for some reason.

We always made stories up about someone being there but never would have imagined actually finding a body.

WOW, that's going to leave a mark.

[Fortinbras Armstrong]

16. Indeed

The legal term is "Attractive Nuisance".

[RobinA]

2. Nah...

He'll get over it and have a cool story to tell for years to come.

Doesn't every adventuresome kid secretly dream of finding a DB? I know I did.

[randome]

8. I know. The assumption that he will be 'scarred for life' isn't based on anything.

I came across a dead body while working at the St. Louis Zoo one afternoon. One of the railroad conductors had died in his office. When I came to collect the day's receipts, I discovered that the day had ended earlier than usual for him.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]Don't ever underestimate the long-term effects of a good night's sleep.[/center][/font][hr]

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

19. I too saw a dead body as a child

I was about 7 or 8. It was a snowy day and we were allowed out for recess. A man walking near the school yard had a heart attack earlier in the day and fell in a snow bank and died. I didn't see much, the teacher waved us back and told us to go inside. I never told my parents. But strangely I've forgotten about it mostly unless I read stories like this.

I will say if the corpse was in bad shape and hanging, that could be traumatic.

[malaise]

3. This

it’s a sad commentary on the community that someone could be dead for so long without anyone ever noticing.

-----------------
That includes family, friends and neighbors. Damn!!

[get the red out]

4. Agree

This is the real story.

[pipoman]

5. including the failure of code enforcement

Who obviously aren't doing their job assuming that the house is within the city limits. I have never lived in a city that wouldn't, at some point demand the yard be mowed.

[malaise]

6. True

and don't forget city and local tax folks.

So alone on a planet full of people - no wonder he hanged himself

[Orrex]

7. Well, there's this:

(Neighbor Alberta Ballard) says she complained to the city, which has mowed the lawn from time to time.

Weird that they'd cut the grass and not try to make contact with the property owner.

However, abandoned homes are an epidemic in this country, so this one might have been misidentified. Even homes that are known to be abandoned can present a problem when the owners can't be found or reached.

Sad that he apparently had no family to notice his absence.

[muriel_volestrangler]

9. It says he died shortly after moving in

and many neighbours didn't even realised he had moved in. If he was suicidal, he may already have been cutting himself off from people he did know.

[malaise]

11. True

but he had no family or loved ones who would check on him - or he cut himself off from them as well.
Hopefully we'll hear from someone shortly.

[oldhippie]

10. I was just thinking about that ....

My nearest neighbor has lived next door to me for over 15 years. He is a nice, friendly guy. Yet we only see or talk to each other maybe 2-3 times per year, always when we happen to be outside cutting our lawns on our lawn tractors and we happen to get close enough, and then we'll shut off the mowers and chat awhile.

Our neighborhood is all one acre lots, so we are a bit spread out. We will wave to each other if we happen to be on the street in our trucks at the same time, but the people in our neighborhood are very rarely in a place where we can chat.

It's not too hard to imagine someone having a heart attack at home and no neighbor knowing about it for a long time. If not for relatives or other visitors (which I, for instance, never have to my house) it may be a long time before someone notices. The most likely situation is that a build up of mail would alert the mail carrier.

[malaise]

12. One of my sisters' neighborhood is like yours

but they get together on Saturdays for coffee once they are around and inform neighbors when they're going out of town. I like that. Most of them have lived there for over 20 years.

[oldhippie]

13. We do have some advantages like that ......

Three of my adjacent four neighbors have lived here as long as I have (over 15 years) so we sort of trust each other. When I go on vacation for more than a few days I will drop off a set of keys to my house and garage with one of them to keep an eye on things. They do the same. The "new" family in the 'hood is right behind me. they moved in about a year ago. They are Hispanic from El Paso and he is a retired border patrol agent. He does BBQ in his back yard a lot, and whenever he makes something new he will bring a sampla over to my wife and I. There is no fence between our back yards, and we have discussed building a common BBQ, grilling and firepit sitting area between our yards. This could be the start of something new!

[malaise]

15. Yep they look after dogs and cats

for one another when they travel - there's a vet in the mix and the coffee shop owner as well.

They're a nice bunch of folks.

You're a neighbor I would like.

[ellenfl]

17. i live in a condo but i keep pretty much to myself.

i don't even know all my neighbors and i have lived in this 45 unit complex for 26 years. i expect to be found in my home in a mummified state, eventually. ashes to ashes . . .

[X_Digger]

14. Bah, 'scarred for life'? Hell, his popularity will be assured for the next year. n/t

[TeeYiYi]

18. "Scarred for life"...

...gimme a break. He's an 'adventurous' boy who just happened to 'venture' inside an abandoned house. It all sounds so whimsically innocent; like a Hardy Boys novel.

What adventurous boy wouldn't want to find a mummy. Now he's scarred for life...

Hardly. I think his parents are being overly dramatic; trying to deflect from the fact that their son was breaking and entering.

TYY

[Codeine]

21. Breaking and entering

is a bit of an overstatement for a kid exploring an empty, long-abandoned building.

[Codeine]

20. We discovered the body of a deceased homeless guy

outside our junior high school when we were thirteen. We weren't impacted so far as I can tell.