Wisconsin Man's Body Found In House 4 Years After He Died

By Samantha Abernethy in News on Feb 7, 2012 10:20PM

In 2007, a Wisconsin man told his friends and neighbors that he was moving away, but instead he shot himself in the head at his West Allis, Wis., home. David Carter's body was not found until Jan. 23, 2012. The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel writes:

For four years, he never paid a bill or emptied his mailbox or pushed a lawn mower or snow shovel. Notices and warning letters were sent his way, but no one ever entered the house to see if he was there and doing all right.

How could that happen? Well, everyone thought he had left, and it was assumed that the house in suburban Milwaukee was abandoned. The city cut his grass when it got long and shoveled snow when it got deep. The cost of that was tacked on to the property tax bills that no one was paying. Because he had no mortgage, no bank came to repossess the house sooner.

A real estate worker came on Jan. 23 to sell the house, which had fallen to tax foreclosure in December. A locksmith opened the front door, and the "nearly skeletonized" body was found on the second floor landing. Dental and medical records confirmed it to be Carter's body.