posted on August 30, 2004 10:37:41 AM new
Here's a sad statement on our society. I heard about it on the news last night, then again on Reuters this morning:
Mummified Man Goes Unnoticed for Two Years
Mon Aug 30, 2004 10:18 AM ET
WINNIPEG, Manitoba (Reuters) - A reclusive Canadian man, who neighbors thought may have gone traveling, was found mummified in his bed, almost two years after he died, Manitoba's chief medical examiner says.
Winnipeg police found the body of 52-year-old Jim Sulkers preserved in his tidy apartment after a relative phoned police to ask them to check on him.
Sulkers, who had multiple sclerosis, preferred to be left alone. His bill payments and pension deposits were handled automatically.
"It was a very well-kept second floor condominium, neat and clean, with everything in its place, and there was a body of a man on the bed, covered in a sheet, like he was sleeping, except that the body was mummified," said Thambirajah Balachandra, who investigates deaths in the province.
A newspaper dated Nov. 21, 2002, was in the apartment in an upscale Winnipeg neighborhood. Balachandra said the man died of natural causes.
"In this case, apparently this man was very reclusive. He kept to himself, he lived alone, and he didn't have contact with anybody," Balachandra said Friday.
The hot, dry and clean environment meant the body did not decompose, but rather dried up, he said.
Neighbors told local newspapers they thought the man had traveled south to escape Winnipeg's long, cold winters, and did not notice anything wrong.
