A Legally Blind Hoarder Living with Dead Son
Yes, someone could die in their home without realizing it! The widow`s home in Brooklyn, a well-appointed two-story brick house worth about $700,000, had fallen into disrepair. Last week it was empty, the mail piled up. No one answered several calls on the private phone. Louis Wolfensohn has not been seen in at least 20 years. Not even his mother, Rita, who for the past two decades believed her son had left his Brooklyn home. Yet on September 15, the New York Post reported that her son may never have left at all and became one of the many things she had collected over the years. Earlier this month, a relative went home to pick up Ms. Wolfensohn`s belongings while she was in the hospital and found the place in absolute disarray, smelling rotten food and littered with garbage. What this ignorant relative – Josette Buchman, Rita`s sister-in-law – did not expect was the skeleton of her nephew Louis, intact, in jeans, socks and shirt, lying on a mattress in the room on the second floor. Although police are reluctant to confirm that the body is definitely his, they said the man died of natural causes. Apparently, the room where the body was found was filled with cobwebs and garbage (as if „a garbage truck had thrown away its load“) and smelled of rotten food, not rotten meat. The mother is now quite old and has lived with her son`s skeletal remains, possibly for 20 years, the New York Post reports.
As the investigation continued, police determined that Ms. Wolfensohn was legally blind and that she was a well-known hoarder. Given the chaos that could be found throughout the house — which was littered with garbage and cobwebs, although there was no noticeable smell of decaying flesh — police now believe it`s possible, Ms Wolfensohn didn`t know her son had died in the house. The elderly woman had no contact with her brother Joseph Buchman until recently, just before his wife discovered the body believed to be her nephew. The police source told the newspaper it was like something of Hitchcock`s most beautiful horror — the 1960 film in which a son, Norman Bates, keeps the remains of his dead mother in a basement. Although the situation has a strange sensation Alfred Hitchcock meets Colyer Brothers, few details are known. According to the Post`s investigation, Wolfensohn had two sons — Michael, who died in 2003 at the age of 38, and Louis, a former taxi driver, who is now believed to be 49. When the first reports of the discovery of the body were published, the public wondered how a body could go unnoticed for 20 years.
An investigator in charge of the case discovered it was a „reverse psycho scene“ – but unlike Norman Bates, who very knowingly hid his mother`s body in their common residence long after her death, police say it`s possible that Wolfensohn knew nothing about the body in her home. She`s a legally blind hoarder who may not even know he was there, NYPD sources told the newspaper. A blind hekler, who had always wondered what had become of her son 20 years ago, discovered that he was lying dead all the time. The Post reported that police believe the woman, who is legally blind, may not have known that her son had died in the bedroom. They also believe that he died of natural causes. It`s unclear whether the details of Louis Wolfensohn`s death — and Rita Wolfensohn`s knowledge of the event — will ever be clear, as the house is now empty and is believed to be in an assisted living home on Long Island after his brother left the facility last weekend. A legally blind woman who lives in Brooklyn is said to have lived in her home with the skeleton of her late son for 20 years. Rita Wolfensohn, a soldier who was taken to the hospital after falling into her home, gave no indication that she knew her son`s remains were in the house with her. She reportedly told police she believed he had left the house.
Last week, police discovered that a Brooklyn woman had been living with the body of her adult son who had been dead for years. Now, the Post reports that Rita Wolfensohn, who is a legally blind hoarder, may not have known that her son`s body was there. However, this is not the first case in which an elderly person lives with a corpse. In 2014, it was determined that Timothy Brown was living with the body of his father Kenneth, who died in a fall after a fire in the house in Stafford, England. Authorities found Kenneth sitting in a chair in his pajamas four months after his death. That same year, Claudio Aferi, 58, was found dead in his buenos Aires home and next to him was the body of his mother Margarita, who had died 10 years earlier. The body was not hidden and seemed to be an integral part of Claudio`s routine. The older Brooklyn woman who lived with her son`s skeletal remains this month, possibly as young as 20, is a legally blind thief who may not even have known he was there, NYPD sources said.
If you`re blind, you`re usually more attentive to other ways to compensate for waste eyes, but if you`re not, you`ll have a terrible time. The man`s body was completely intact and was lying in the second bedroom of the house when it was discovered, according to the New York Post. Wolfensohn`s sister-in-law, Josette Buchman, met the body when she returned home to Wolfensohn to pick up supplies while Wolfensohn was in the hospital. The Post further reports that the room was filled with garbage and cobwebs and looked like „a garbage truck had unloaded its cargo,“ according to police sources. Asked about his son, Wolfensohn told investigators he had moved. Family members who said they did not have a close relationship with Wolfensohn said they had not seen Louis Wolfensohn in about 20 years. Sign up to receive FREE email notifications with news to brighten up your day Your brother Joseph Buchman and his wife Josette didn`t want to say where Wolfensohn — whose husband Jesse died in 1987 — is — but they were seen Saturday visiting an assisted living center on Long Island. „It`s like an inverted psycho scene,“ a police source said at the time, referring to Hitchcock`s 1960 horror film, in which a son, Norman Bates, guards the remains of his deceased mother in a basement. An old New York teaser was found earlier this month with the body of her deceased son, who authorities say died 20 years ago.
The elderly mother had lived with the skeletal remains of her son, the remains of which were hidden by the smelly house, but it appears that investigators really believe that Ms. Wolfensohn may not have known that she was living with her son`s body. New York authorities say they believe the woman thought he had just left the house without saying anything. But investigators now believe Wolfensohn may not have known she was living with her son`s body. Cobwebs and garbage filled the room where the body was found — as if „a garbage truck had thrown its load there,“ police sources said. When the police questioned the sick woman, she spoke of her son as if he had simply moved. Officials believe the son died of natural causes. When police questioned Wolfensohn, they spoke of her son as if he had simply moved. The room smelled of rotten food, but not decaying meat, the sources said. Michael died in 2003 at the age of 38, according to court documents. The body is believed to be one of Wolfensohn`s two sons; One died in 2003 at the age of 38, while the other, who is said to be around 49 today, has not been seen by relatives in 20 years.
Elizabeth is a writer based in Chicago, IL. Follow her on Twitter @ekingc. Police told the Post they believed the man had died of natural causes. Although police have not yet officially identified the body, they have confirmed that they believe it was Wolfensohn`s son.