Woman Sleeps Next to Her Brothers' Rotting Corpse in House of Horrors

[Ladybbird]

Woman Sleeps Next to Her Brothers' Rotting Corpse For FIVE Years

Cops Discover House of Horrors in Affluent Geelong Suburb

MailOnline 20 FEB 2024


















A woman spent up to five years sleeping next to her brothers' rotting corpse in a rat-infested and rubbish-strewn house in an affluent suburb.



The woman, aged in her 70s, lived with the corpse in her public housing unit on Russell Street at Newtown in Geelong, south-west of Melbourne.





Newtown is considered a well-heeled neighbourhood where the median house price currently sits at $1.1million.

Police made the horrifying discovery after arresting the woman on December 29, 2022 on an unrelated matter.

Forensic officers in biohazard suits were forced to wade through floor-to-ceiling rubbish, rats, dead possums and human faeces to reach the 'skeleton'.

The woman is understood to have slept next to the corpse anywhere between two and five years.

'It was a bloody skeleton they removed, not a body,' neighbour Nicole Stratton told the Geelong Advertiser.

'How can someone be living with a dead body next door for five years and not a single person know about it?

'They've tried to sweep this under the rug. We have been living next to a house of horrors.'

Residents along the leafy street complained to multiple government departments for years, however their objections fell on deaf ears.

A City of Greater Geelong council staff member is understood to have attempted to engage with the tenant at least once before notifying the DFFH.

The house is a 15-minute walk from the GMHBA stadium, home to Geelong Football Club, and a stone's throw from the busy cosmopolitan hub on Pakington Street.

The man was last seen alive in 2018 by some of the residents living along the street.

The woman was a Department of Families, Fairness and Housing tenant, prompting questions about how the body could lie undiscovered for so long.

Ms Stratton said she thought the accumulation of 'utter filth' may have helped mask the stench of the decomposing body.

'There was always a smell but we just thought it was the piles of rubbish,' she said.

'The blinds were always down and you could see the mould on the back of them.

'The carport was constantly filled with trash. There were rats everywhere, it was honestly disgusting.'

She said a skeleton and 'not a body' was removed from the site with the stench attracting flies.

Ms Stratton said her eldest daughter refuses to go outside at night as she is still traumatised by the ordeal.

It's understood that the local housing office established a new system to escalate any issues associated with welfare concerns after the incident.

Victoria Police said they attended the property to conduct a welfare check on the man when his corpse was discovered.

A DFFH spokesperson said: 'Several welfare checks had been conducted at the property since 2021 due to growing concerns regarding lack of contact, lack of access and the poor state of the property.

They added: 'This is a tragic incident.

'We send our sincerest condolences to the man's family and friends.'

The woman was released without charge in relation to the man's death last year.

The coroner is still investigating the cause of death.

The property has remained vacant for over a year and is expected to be upgraded later this year.