September 15th, 2016, Brooklyn, New York. A woman named Josette Buchman was travelling to her sister-in-law Rita’s home to collect some personal effects for her while she was spending some time in the hospital. Inside, Buchman found herself within what was clearly the home of a hoarder. Trash littered the home, and the air had the scent of rotting food to it. We can’t say why she was drawn to the attic bedroom, but we do know what she found there. Laying upon a mattress in the middle of a room described as if “a garbage truck had dumped its load” by the NYPD was Louis Wolfensohn, Rita’s son and Buchman’s nephew who had been last seen 20 years ago, now a perfectly preserved skeleton still dressed in jeans, socks, and a shirt. Today’s episode focuses on a mental disorder. Much like any mental disorder, hoarding carries a certain stigma with it that can make life more difficult for those who suffer from it. We’re not here to lay judgement on anyone, we’re just looking to explore a topic from an unbiased position. If you have any concerns about your mental health, please speak to a psychiatrist so that you can determine what kind of support you need. And with that out of the way… Let’s get into it! This begs the question, how exactly does one live with a corpse for twenty years without realizing it? Oh I—I don’t know… I can’t imagine having that stuff happen very often. You’d be surprised. Oh no… Finding corpses in the homes of hoarders is more common than you would hope… in that it happens at all. Pets seem to be one of the most common casualties in the homes of hoarders. According to Tamara and Jeremy Bender, a couple who run a business cleaning the homes of hoarders, in one house they found 60 cats, 19 of which were corpses. Another similar business run out of Australia by Chris Burgess, found a mummified dog in one Sydney-area home he was cleaning. And it doesn’t end with animals. Ohhh... July 2017, a Sydney man by the name of Bruce Roberts had been noted as missing his usual grocery trips by staff at his local store. Concerned, they contacted the authorities, he was found to have passed away from natural causes in his home, among piles of the garbage he’d kept inside. Oh. home, among piles of the garbage he’d kept inside. Aw, that’s— that’s really sad… And I’m sorry to say it doesn’t get better. A year after his death, the executor of Roberts’ estate sent cleaners to ready the property for sale in June 2018. While clearing the building out, they discovered something straight from a nightmare among the piles of trash. Buried beneath the rubble and wrapped in a carpet were the skeletal remains of another man. It seems that the remains had been placed there as long as eight years prior. While we can’t know for certain what happened, we can piece some things together. Thankfully, there are already a few leads here. First, the skeletal remains belonged to one Shane Snellman, who was known to local police for low level crimes like selling drugs and breaking and entering. Second, we have a statement by one of Roberts’ then-neighbours that he became increasingly paranoid about security in the years leading up to his death. Local police believe that Snellman was breaking into the home when he encountered Roberts, resulting in a scuffle that ended with Snellman’s death. What happened to the house. After being sold at auction for over $2 million Australian dollars- WHAT? The home was bulldozed and is being redeveloped into a luxury home. Talk about a glow-up. Ok, question— how does anyone actually want to live in a pile of garbage so big that someone could die beneath the piles of trash and you’d never even know because you can’t even remember what the floors look like!? Well, from what we could find, many don’t. Or in the words of Tamara Bender, “I haven't met a hoarder who wanted to live like that. It affects their mental health...” In fact, “compulsive hoarding” is a mental health disorder where people save large quantities of items, even if they don’t have any real value. According to the Cleveland Clinic, commonly hoarded items include “newspapers, magazines, paper products, household goods, and clothing”. According to the Mayo Clinic, hoarding disorder can also be described as a difficulty in parting with possessions, to the degree that the thought of it can cause distress. While they may not want to live with so many items, they don’t necessarily see a problem with it—something that can make treatment difficult. While hoarding disorder can begin as early as teenage years, the average age for someone seeking treatment is around 50, according to the International OCD Foundation. It is also noted that hoarding disorder is viewed as a form of obsessive compulsive disorder, and that 1 in 5 hoarders display other OCD symptoms. According to the UK’s National Health Service, hoarding disorder also has associations with severe depression and psychotic disorders like schizophrenia, and while the exact causes of hoarding are not known, hoarding can be connected to traumatic events like the death of a loved one. Hoarders may also hold strong beliefs about items, like thinking that buying more items might make them happy. In addition, the NHS reports that hoarding is a condition linked with self-neglect and that those suffering from hoarding disorder are more likely to live alone, lived a deprived childhood, maintain poor relations with family members, have a family history of hoarding, or grew up in a cluttered home. Unfortunately, hoarding disorders aren’t easy to treat—even when the person wants help. According to the American Psychological Association, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy is the most effective form of treatment, though it appears less effective here than with other mental disorders. A better treatment, according to Catherine Ayers, professor of psychiatry at the University of California in San Diego, might be a program based on cognitive rehabilitation. In her own words, “We teach them how to categorize, plan and problem solve. They go item by item, deciding what to keep or discard. Over time, they learn they can tolerate the distress of discarding.” Ok, ok, mental illness aside and body hiding aside, how does someone like “skeleton-in-the-attic-lady” not realize that her son’s been decaying in her home for close to 20 years? Well, for starters, Rita Wolfensohn - the homeowner - was legally blind. Well wouldn’t the body start smelling really yucky and stuff? Well, that’s the other thing. The house already smelled so bad that it may well have masked the smell of decaying flesh. According to the New York Post, NYPD sources reported that the room that the skeleton was found in reeked of rotting food, but they couldn’t smell any decaying flesh. Mind you, Louis’ body was little more than a skeleton by that point. Rita herself was described as a recluse by her neighbours, with Gothamist quoting one as saying, "She never said hello. She was always walking down the street with a grocery bag. She would walk looking down. Something about her always seemed a little weird." When questioned about her son by police, she seemed to be under the impression that he had moved out years ago, and officials seemed under the impression that she was wholly unaware of the corpse within the home. In addition, Louis seemed to be estranged from his family other than Rita meaning that when he vanished… no one really noticed. It is unlikely that Rita herself had anything to do with her son’s demise. Officials stated that the man was terminally ill, and had likely died of natural causes. After the incident, the house was emptied and while Rita’s whereabouts aren’t known, the last information we could find reported that she was likely placed in an assisted living home by her family. While in some cases hoarders can maintain their lives, hoarding can also cause many problems, including damaging one’s work and social lives, and more physical dangers like health risks from the clutter, fire risks, tripping and falling debris hazards, and pest or rodent infestations. But, like, what if someone I knew had a hoarding disorder? Is there maybe, like, something I could do to help them? That’s a good question. While all of us have trouble parting with our things, like letting go of childhood toys, people who have hoarding disorder feel an even stronger level of connection to their belongings, and a deeper despair when they part with them. Mental illness has stigmas attached, and it can be difficult to discuss. But, the NHS has a few suggestions: Try to persuade them to see a general practitioner. Be sensitive and supportive, focus on your concerns for their health, and remember that simply getting rid of the mess won’t solve the underlying issue; the clutter will just build up again. If they seem distressed then reassure them that no one is going to go through their house and throw everything out. Remember, this is to empower the person so that they can declutter on their own and your GP may be able to direct them to a therapist that specializes in the topic. And that’s the main thing, at the end of the day, it’s the root cause that needs to be addressed, and when it comes to mental illness, a softer touch is often the correct method. Otherwise it can lead to a real mess… Speaking of hoarding! Hoo boy! What’s this? It’s this virtual tour of this wacky house for sale that’s just an absolute labyrinth of weird crap. There’s this online challenge going around where you have to go through the house and try to find this bathtub? But I can’t find it anywhere! Have you checked the bathroom? Like three of ‘em. There’s not even a shower. That is… curious. This is gonna take a while - if you wanna follow me on my madhouse expedition, click that video on your screen right now! Click it now ya cowards before YouTube autoplays to some other video, hurry!
