Elderly Man's Body Inside Elm St. Home Had Been There Over A Year: PD

EAST HAVEN, CT — The call to the East Haven Memorial Funeral Home was different. The man wanted information about burials and cremations.

When the funeral home tried to learn more about the person who had died, they were told the man had been dead. Since April 2021. The funeral home told the man to call police. He hung up. So the funeral home called police.

According to East Haven Capt. Joseph M. Murgo, an investigation was immediately launched in an attempt to find out who had made the call.

An hour or so later, the East Haven Public Safety dispatch center received a phone call from someone asking about how to get a coroner to a house, an Elm Street address. Patrol officers and the East Haven police Investigative Services Division went to the address. They knocked, but no one answered and it "appeared unoccupied." Murgo said that, "Due to the possibility of a deceased individual within, entry was made into the house."

Police found the body of an elderly deceased man with advanced stages of decomposition in an upstairs bedroom. Preliminary investigation confirmed he died more than a year ago, Murgo said.

Murgo said it's "unclear why the death was not reported earlier."

The man who made the calls is "fully cooperating with the investigation," Murgo said.

The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner took possession of the body, with an autopsy scheduled for Thursday. Murgo said that there may be possible charges pending.