This list of stories about people found living alongside the dead bodies of their relatives or friends is shocking proof that some people just can't let their loved ones go. It's straight up unnatural - even elephants bury their dead - but these news stories about people who keep dead bodies come out time after time. Many involve spouses unwilling to let go, but others involve panicked murderers, depraved lunatics, and many sad lonely people who just want someone to sit next to them and point their lifeless eyes at the NASCAR. The list includes people living with dead wives, husbands, girlfriends, boyfriends, mothers, sisters, and brothers, but - happily - no dead strangers. Keep your eyes on the people closest to you.
15 People Who Were Found Living with Dead Bodies, death, anything, people, crime, gross, creepy, other, True crime, true stories, arts & culture, creepy stories,
Carl Tanzler
Though married with children, radiologist Carl Tanzer (aka Count Carl Von Cosel, aka Georg Karl Tänzler) fell in love with raven-haired tuberculosis patient Elena de Hoyos in April 1930. He was convinced he had been dreaming about her for decades, and he gave her many gifts. He tried to save her with several unorthodox methods, but she eventually died in October 1931 at age 22. Tanzler designed and built her a crypt, and he sat by her coffin every night to talk to her. She talked back, begging him to exhume her body.
So he did. Then he tied her body parts together with piano wire, fitted her with glass eyes, made her a wig of human hair (her own), and covered her skin with wax. In time, she looked perfect. For the next seven years, he played music for her at night and slept beside her.
Tanzler was eventually arrested, tried, and somehow declared "sane." Only then did doctors examine Elena's body. They found that Tanzler had fitted her hoo-ha with a tube wide enough for him to stick his no-no into it. They also found sperm inside it.
Source
Man Lives with Wife's Corpse After Failed Murder-Suicide
Early one week in 2010, Phoenix police got a bizarre call from a 56-year-old man who said he had shot his wife. When they arrived at the house, they found the body of the 66-year-old woman in question, who had been shot with a handgun the Friday before. They also noticed that the caller had shot himself in the face, but was still alive. It went down as one of the worst weekends ever.
Source
Indian Man Hides Wife's Suicide from Children
One Sunday night in 2011, Parthasarathy argued with his wife, beat her soundly, and left the room. When he returned some time later, he found his wife Saraswathi, 28, hanging from the ceiling fan with a noose made of her sari. Rather than call for help, he cut her down himself, and she died soon after. For the next four days, he kept his wife's body locked in the bedroom, slept in the hallway, and told his children (8 and 5) that their mom was sick. Neighbors eventually called police to investigate the foul smell of her decomposition.
Source
Widower Leaves Corpse in Bed for 5 Months
In 2005, loving husband Howard Lewis, 68, kept his wife Elizabeth's death a secret from friends and neighbors. He went on working at a shop in South Wales, and when asked, said she was "fine." When police were finally called in after five months of no-sees, they found the body of Elizabeth, 79, still in the bed where she died, surrounded by air fresheners. Friends speculated that Howard was in shock and denial.
Source, 2
Vietnamese Man Turns Wife's Corpse into Real Doll
This is kind of sweet, but in the creepiest way possible. Like Let the Right One In sweet, maybe? Maybe cute-coworker-who-somehow-knows-where-you-live creepy.
Anyway, after Le Van’s wife died and was buried in 2003, he began sleeping on top of her grave every night. When the weather got nasty, he dug a tunnel down to the casket so he wouldn’t get rained on. In November 2004 – more than a year later – he finally dug up the body and took it on home. To keep his wife’s corpse nice and fresh, Van molded her skin with plaster and clay, dressed her up, and put on a little lipstick. In 2009, he reported that she slept on the bed with him, and that his eldest of three children hugged her every night before turning in.
A neighbor described Van as “a normal and well-behaved man.” They always are.
Source
Little Old Lady Lives with Husband and Sister, Both Dead
When Jean Stevens's husband James died around 2000, she still had her twin sister June for company. But when June passed away in 2009, Jean, 91, was very lonely. She somehow had the graves of both her husband and her sister exhumed (whoever helped her got in trouble later) and brought their bodies home so she could see and talk to them.
Stevens sat James down on a couch in her detached garage in rural Pennsylvania, and she propped June up in a spare room in the main house. She spoke to the two corpses, dressed them up in "accessories" (funny mustaches and hats, probs), and spritzed them with perfumes that they liked / made them stink less.
When questioned, she said, "I think when you put them in the (ground), that's goodbye, goodbye. In this way, I could touch [them] and look at [them] and talk to [them]." Sad.
Source
Teenager Cuddles and Desecrates Mother's Corpse
In 1890 Paris, while Cézanne and Gauguin painted lovely things and ladies and gentlemen made merry at the Moulin Rouge, a teenage boy slept contentedly beside his mother. The twist was that she was dead, and he had just completely disemboweled her with his bare hands. And also raped her corpse.
Source
Woman Makes Boyfriend's Corpse NASCAR Buddy
Sometimes, all a girl wants is to maybe meet some guys, some Michigan guys, y’know… watch NASCAR and stuff. But when 67-year-old Charles Zigler died in December 2010, that didn’t put an end to his TV watching days. His longtime girlfriend Linda Chase, 72, kept his mummified corpse propped up in a living room chair, glassy eyes trained on the fast cars going in circles on the screen. When police discovered Zigler’s body in July 2012 – 18 months post-mortem – Chase admitted that she had been cashing his social security checks. “I’m probably going to prison,” she said.
Source
Man Murders Girlfriend, Hides Body on Bedroom Floor
Some men dump the bodies of the girlfriends they murder. Others lay them out on their bedroom floors, cover them in sheets, and surround them with taxi cab air fresheners to combat the stench of decomposition. That’s how police found 39-year-old Melinda Raya in July 2011, two months after Erik Grumpelt, 35, punched her in the stomach one too many times. In his defense, she cheated on him, and hiding a body is hard.
Source
Legally Blind Brooklyn Hoarder Unknowingly Lived with Her Son's Corpse
“It’s like some reverse Psycho scene,” an unnamed law enforcement official told Fox News after a woman in Brooklyn was found living with her son's corpse in September, 2016. The woman, Rita Wolfensohn, a legally blind hoarder, may not even have been aware her son died in her house (really, though, she couldn't smell it?).
The remains were discovered by Josette Buchman, Wolfensohn's sister-in-law, who found what's been described as a "completely intact" human skeleton wearing jeans, socks, and a shirt, lying on a mattress in a second floor bedroom, surrounded by clutter. The state of decay indicates the man died maybe 20 years ago.
The family has yet to comment on whether they'll keep the remains for Halloween, to make use of them as part of a porch display for trick-or-treaters.