A "missing" man's body was found under the staircase of his own home eight months after his disappearance — and his wife is explaining how she made the grim discovery and how it was possible that his remains wene unnoticed for so long.
Jennifer Maedge, 50, received a text from her husband Richard Maedge, in April 2022, saying that he didn't feel well and that he was leaving work early. When she arrived home, in Troy, Illinois, her husband's car was in the driveway, but Richard was nowhere to be found.
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Police came and searched the property, which they described as a "hoarder home," but also didn't find any signs of Richard. Eight months after that day, his wife stumbled upon his mummified remains in a hidden closet under the stairs while she was searching for Christmas decorations, according to People.
Richard had died by suicide. The Madison County Coroner Steve Nonn said there were no signs of foul play.
"It was pretty shocking," Jennifer said. "He had mental health issues in the past and he would get help for it. And he told me that he knew the breaking point, and he would get help. So, this would be the most farfetched of anything, that he would actually go through with this."
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Questions ensued about how the man's corpse could go undiscovered for so long, especially given that it would have put off an odor. During the initial visit to the house conducted by police after Richard went missing, they noted a "sewer-like odor" inside the home but couldn't locate the source, according to Chief Deputy Coroner Kelly Rogers.
The smell was still there when they visited a second time, so how months passed without his body being discovered was a concern. Jennifer said the smell persisted over the months, and she even called a plumber in at one point.
"The smell did not take up the whole entire house, it was very, very confusing and everything, because there's not a basement or anything, it's more of a crawl space and a cellar," she said.
"Plus, I have four dogs and a cat roaming around, so you get many different smells. And then also, my sinuses were bothering me at the time, too. So, you're trying to figure things out and you're getting confused at where it's [coming from]."
Richard's sister, Marilyn Toliver, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that authorities should have found the body.
"Mistakes were made, and I want answers," she said. "I'm just now beginning to say stuff out loud. I should have been screaming from the beginning, but I was suckered in by the police department saying they were doing their job and looking for him."
The deputy coroner told KTVI that because the remains were in a mummified state, they might not have produced a strong, persistent odor, giving a reason for why it took so long to find the source.
Police say they searched "the grounds, the backyard, the main floor, the upstairs," But Jennifer doesn't remember telling them about the hidden closet. "I didn't ever really think of it, because I never thought that he was there," she said.
"It never occurred to me that he would've taken his own life," Jennifer added. "I thought, well, maybe he might've taken a walk, because he was maybe stressed out. I mean, it's not something that he would normally do, but then again, you never know what people would do."
