Man found 13 years after his suicide - Munich

A man who went missing in October 1996 has been found (German link) by the new owners of the house where he had been living with his family - hanged in the basement of his apartment building. The then 67 year old man disappeared, his family registered him as missing, he was declared dead in 2001.

The new owners of the decrepit building were clearing out the large, cluttered basement and discovered a long-forgotten door behind packing boxes, a door that belonged to the shower-room of a former bakery located in the basement. There, lying on the ground, they found the mummified skeleton with a frayed rope still around its neck; the other piece of the rope was still attached to a pipe close to the ceiling. It was identified as the missing man with the help of old dental records.

The man's widow, who still lives in the house, never knew how close her missing husband was.

And nobody noticed the smell???

Come on, dead bodies stink like hell!!

Well if the wife was around the same age at the same time her sense of smell may be gone also. I use to volunteer at a seniors citizens home in high school and the smell killed me sometimes yet no one ever said anything. Not trying to sound derogatory just saying...

A musty smell in a musty old cellar? People probably thought it was mouse turds.

hey, that rhymed!

how tragic.

Reminds me of the guy who was found up a tree 29 years after hanging himself.

At least, that is what you are supposed to think! But get forensics to look closer at those strands of rope... Somethings not quite right. Its time for the cold case boys!

Hi Fred West!

Nah, Catherine from CSI will find rope particles under his fingernails that Hodges matches up to the rope, and Grissom will determine that the knot proves that a left-handed pipe-smoking hetero male with a limp due to arthritis and the habit of carrying DM 5 coins in his watch pocket tied it.

I do feel for the family, missing him for 13 years and then finding him in this gruesome manner. Then again, he should have left a note: "Bin im Keller beim Aufhängen".

thought of this thread when I read this thread.
http://www.toytowngermany.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=148727&pid=1761319&st=0&#entry1761319

Shocked that no Austrians involved in this...

Does that translate to "I'm going to be hanging around in the cellar"?

Oh nooo just realised "Aufhaengen" as in hanging up the washing. Oh thats bad!

More info from the Süddeutsche Zeitung: He was the only one with a key to that door. It was hidden behind stacks of old doors so that when the police looked for him after he had gone missing they overlooked it. I wonder if he put the doors in front of the door to the shower-room on purpose (of course this only works if it opens inwards).

Anyway, he had told his wife that he was going to the Wiesn (Abendzeitung headline). I don't know what the Wiesn-hit was in 1996 but committing suicide to avoid having to listen to DJ Ötzi, Status Quo or John Denver is a bit much.

[pedant]To the tabloids: He was not hanging in the basement for 13 years as he was found on the floor. Eight or nine years, maybe.[/pedant]

All those hidden places in basements and backyards really freak me out.