Thursday, April 28, 2011

Hoarding: When stacks of stuff are only a symptom

By TATIANA PINA

Most neighbors knew the house at 23 Lorelei Drive. It had belonged to Lori Madden, who worked for the post office in Providence.

North Kingstown officials knew her as a hoarder and for years had been after her to deal with the trash that piled up in her house and yard. Madden tried to clean up, but the trash and squalor got so overwhelming that Building Official Gary Tedeschi wanted to raze the house.

He decided against it after Madden was reported missing in June 2008. When she could not be found, a relative sold the house to a neighbor.

On March 16, 2009, Robert Fuller and Jared Smith were cleaning out the house, standing amid piles of trash five feet high, when Fuller grabbed a pile of clothes to throw into a garbage can — and saw, hanging from the sleeve of a black sweater, a bone with a hand attached.

Madden was dead, buried under the trash. The medical examiner was never able to figure out what had killed her..." More & video

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