Wash. Woman Suffocates Under House Clutter

[Sequoia]

SHELTON, Wash. -- A Washington state woman who was reported missing was later found dead suffocated under a pile of debris in her home, police said.

Officers found the body of Marie Rose, 62, buried under clothes Thursday, reported KIRO-TV in Seattle.

Her husband reported her missing after he couldn't find her early Thursday morning.

Officers found clothing, dishes and boxes crammed from floor to ceiling in every room of the couple's house.

"In some areas, clothes and debris were piled 6 feet high," said Police Chief Terry Davenport of the Shelton Police Department. "Officers were having to climb over the top on their hands and knees. In some areas, their heads were touching the ceiling while they were standing on top of piles of debris."

<snip>

http://www.nbc4.tv/news/5950773/detail.html

[matcom]

1. DAMMIT TLC!!

where was 'Cleansweep' when this woman needed HELP? :cry:

[CottonBear]

6. LOL!

On a more serious note: this poor woman was buried under a giant pile of clutter. :(

[skygazer]

2. There were a pair of brothers who lived in NYC like this

They were rich eccentrics who lived in a mansion in the city - they were elderly and rarely went out. They were eventually found dead - one of them had been killed by a stack of newspapers that fell on him and his brother, who was an invalid and wheelchair bound starved to death! The house was filled from top to bottom with stuff - old newspapers and magazines, boxes and junk. I think they condemned it and burned it down or something. It was back in the 30's or 40's I believe.

Very strange.

[qnr]

4. I remember reading about that ages ago. n/t

[CottonBear]

5. They are called hoarders. NPR had a segment on extreme cleaners:

people who clean up after these poor people, usually after they are dead. :(

[Jamastiene]

10. Maximum Exposure had a woman like that who had a Ph. D. from

Stanford. She was evicted because her house was messy and cluttered.

[BikeWriter]

3. Oh, shit! I'm in danger now!

:(

[tinfoilinfor2005]

7. I used to be a home health nurse, and I saw these conditions

from time to time. It's hard to imagine unless you actually see it. Bundles and bundles of newspapers and magazines from floor to ceiling with little pathways cut to allow movement from room to room. And the people act like this is absolutely normal.

[LeftyMom]

12. The lady who had my apartment before me was like that

She also ate only ice cream because her kitchen was too cluttered to cook in.

We had to clean like crazy and replace all the flooring and appliaances before I could move in.

[GumboYaYa]

8. My wife is in the auction business and deals with lots of estates.

She sees varying degrees of that all the time. She has been in houses where they had to make trails through the junk to go from room to room.

[djeseru]

9. *sigh* This sounds like my grandmother.

I used to deal with this constantly while living with her. You get one room cleared, then move to the next, and before you know it, the original room is back to it's original state. So frustrating...

We finally just gave up after battling this for over 16-17 years. I'm hoping I won't get a phone call like this lady's family...

:-(

[Indy_Dem_Defender]

17. My Grandparents do this as well

55 years of marriage they have collected alot of crap. I remember once back in the 80's my mom bought them a expensive cookware set they really wanted for christmas. So back about 2 years ago my parents had a garage sale and my grandparents brought some stuff over to sale at it (o my god they actually parted with some things!), one of the things they brought was that cookware set, had to be at least 16-17 years since that Christmas. Grandma says "I don't know who got me these damn things I didn't want them", she wanted them 16-17 years ago at least, but when you have 3 and 4 of something I guess you wouldn't need another.

Now am I bad person that when I'm at my grandparents funerals someday, I will probably be crying about all of the family having to clean up their mess of a house then them actually passing?

[Xithras]

11. I gotta show this to my daughter.

Maybe NOW I can convince her to clean her bedroom!

[China_cat]

13. My great aunt May

was like that. When she had to go into the nursing home, the people cleaning out her house ended up having to go through every newspaper and magazine that filled 8 rooms of a 14 room house. May had stuck $50 bills and $100 bills in the pages. They found almost $200,000 and are sure they had to have missed a lot more.

Other rooms were full of jars containing nuts, bolts, nails, boxes of jar lids, all kinds of stuff.

[StellaBlue]

14. I know people with this.

My grandmother's house is like this and should be condemned. She sees nothing wrong whatsoever. It is VERY frustrating. To top it off, my mother, her daughter, has it, too, and the older she gets, the more unneccesarry clutter she wants. The crazy thing is that she sees her own mother's problem, but not her own! She thinks her clutter is stuff she 'may need' one day. It's ridiculous. At least my mother doesn't have baby roaches crawling around, though. It's so embarrasing/revolting/sad.

There was an episode of Oprah about this a few months ago. Apparently this is an OCD-related mental disorder. From my own experience, I totally agree. http://www.oprah.com/tows/pastshows/200411/tows_past_20041118_b.jhtml

As for myself, the chain is broken! I throw away/get rid of everything I can. Also I am not a recreational shopper like my mother and grandmother, who buy 'trinkets' and 'collectibles' and other pointless pieces of shit.

Grandma's house looks about like the below photo (only with tons of tacky and clashing 'artwork' on the walls! ...and she invites relatives who are in town to spend the night there!

[pitohui]

15. i knew a man who had this

i found a dead, mummified rat in the clutter, but trust me, there were plenty of live ones too

he lost everything financially and become homeless and was living in his car, i have often wondered what became of the crap but didn't dare to ask

even his CAR had roaches, and i do mean the insect

[XemaSab]

16. Geez...

That's really sobering.

We have a second garage that's sort of like that... boxes of crap, random furniture, more boxes of crap.

Every time I clean it my mom dumps more shit in there. :(