An Illinois wife found her husband’s mummified body buried in a closet in her home eight months after reporting him missing.
Richard Maedge, 53, was first reported missing on April 27, 2022, and police searched the home he shared with his wife Jennifer in Troy at least twice to locate him.
Both times, officers reported smelling a “drain-like” odor inside the home, which they dubbed the “Hoarder Home.”
It wasn’t until December 11, eight months after Richard’s disappearance, that Jennifer stumbled across his body while looking for Christmas decorations hanging in a bedroom closet in a rarely visited, hidden storage area.
Coroners released a report Thursday showing that Richard had died by suicide and that his body had passed the stage of decomposition and was mummified at the time of its discovery.
The police coroner said mummified bodies from KTVI do not emit odors, which may have helped Richard remain undetected for so long.
Jennifer and Richard Maedge. Richard killed himself in a closet in April and Jennifer found him in December
The house where Richard Maedge was found in December after he went missing in April
Jennifer told Troy Police that Richard disappeared on April 27, 2022 after he called her to say he was leaving work early.
When she got home, she found Richard’s car parked outside and his keys and wallet inside, but he was nowhere to be seen.
The police began searching for the father of three and first made a passage through the crowded house.
They reported the foul smell inside but decided Richard wasn’t there.
Some time later, Jennifer called the police to report that the smell was still there and the police returned to search the house a second time but found nothing.
Eventually, Jennifer contacted a plumber about the smell, who visited the home and said it smelled like sewage gas, according to KTVI.
The plumber plugged one of the sewer pipes in the house, and Jennifer reported that the smell had subsided.
A missing poster for Richard Maedge. He was reported missing in April 2022
Richard was the father of three children. Police said he killed himself in a closet in Troy, Illinois
Jennifer Maedge thanked police for their efforts in locating her husband, who was in her closet
Jennifer finally spotted Richard on December 11 and told police she found his body while looking for a bag full of Christmas decorations.
Police said the closet where Richard was ultimately found is in a hidden location in the house.
“I decided to put up the Christmas tree and was looking for a bag of Christmas ornaments and that’s when I spotted it,” Jennifer told the Belleville News-Democrat.
Richard’s sister, Marilyn Toliver, spoke out against the police, saying they could have done more to find him.
In response, Troy Police released an exhaustive list of the actions they took to locate Richard, including extensive searches of the area surrounding the property.
However, Jennifer thanked the police for their work.
“Even though we didn’t want the result we had, it’s still a result that we can put him to rest,” she told Fox 2.
She added that she felt her husband’s “presence” was close to her while he was missed.
Police said they suspect no foul play in Richard’s death.
“During the autopsy examination, no other injuries or evidence to suggest anything shameful about Mr. Maedge’s death was found,” the coroner said.