An Illinois woman found her husband’s dead body inside their home nearly eight months after he disappeared.
Jennifer Maedge, of Troy IL, reported Richard Mardge missing in April of last year. She told Troy police that she last spoke to him April 26, 2022. She mentioned that when he called, he said that he will be leaving work early. When she arrived home later that day, he was gone but his car was parked outside and his keys and wallet were left behind.
Police searched the home, but didn’t find no trace of him or of foul play.
The County’s chief deputy coroner, Kelly Rogers, stated that the police described their home as a “hoarder home” and had a “sewer-like” smell. Later, a second search was made because of the smell. Jennifer, her neighbors, and even cops reported a foul odor coming from the home for months but believed it was sewage.
On Dec. 11th, as she was decorating the Christmas tree, Jennifer went to look for decorations in a storage area behind a clothes cupboard under a staircase and that’s where she found her husband’s body.
According a report from the county coroner, his death was ruled a suicide.
“I decided to put the Christmas tree up, and I was looking for a tote of Christmas ornaments, and that’s when I discovered him,” Jennifer told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in December. “He had committed suicide.”
Richard’s body had decomposed to the point of mummification.
