Man Finds Body Inside Foreclosed Home He Bought

Overgrown grass, trash, and an interior that probably needs some TLC are things you'd expect to deal with when purchasing a foreclosed home; a dead body is not. But William Wilson stumbled upon all of these things when he entered his new Cape Coral, Fla., residence on Wednesday after buying it for $96,000 the day before, USA Today reports. Not only did he report what the News-Press describes as a "time capsule" inside, complete with shredded garbage, pizza boxes, and bird poop: He also says he discovered human remains in the master bedroom. Police and neighbors believe the corpse is of the "reclusive" former owner, Carmen Garcia-Viso, who built the house but had not been heard from or seen in a few years. "I figured that's what happened," one neighbor tells the News-Press. "We couldn't get through to check on her because of the bars [on the windows]."

Wilson explained his predicament to the dispatcher when he called Cape Coral police. "I bought a house at a tax-deed auction," he said. "Apparently ... the owner died and she couldn't pay her taxes. Nobody ever came and got her, so she's still in the house." "The owner of the house?" was the dispatcher's incredulous reply. "Are you at the house now?" "I can't imagine it would be anyone different," Wilson responded. He says the "mummified" body looked like it had been eaten by something, possibly cockroaches or a pet bird. Police records show officers checked the supposedly vacant house twice in 2013; code enforcement officers also reportedly stopped by "several times" after neighbor complaints of deteriorating conditions, including rats and snakes in the long grass. Police have started a death investigation, the AP reports. (An elderly woman's body was found in her foreclosed home four years after she died.)