Man's body lay undiscovered in bed for 20 years until Rentokil called over rats
A man's corpse went undetected for two decades before it was finally discovered by pest control agents who were called out about a rat problem.
The skeletal remains were found at a boarded-up terraced house in Mallow, Co Cork in Ireland, and they were later identified as belonging to the late Tim O'Sullivan after Gardai found a positive dental match with a local clinic.
Two Cork County Council employees found the skeleton under a duvet on a bed in the home after the local authority was contacted about an infestation of vermin. They had initially been charged with changing the lock so Rentokil could get inside and kill the rodents. Paul O'Donoghue, from the council, was unable to breach the lock so had to kick the door in, an inquest has heard.
He noticed a considerable amount of post and leaflets inside the door of the property. Mr O’Donoghue decided to do a “quick sweep” of the property. He spotted that there was a bedroom on the left.
“I could see a bed in the middle of the floor. I then saw a shape of legs under the duvet, and a coat laid on top. I realised it was a human body.
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The corpse was found by two council employees who gained access to the property after receiving reports of a rat infestation (Irish Mirror)"I went out to my colleagues on the street and I said, 'I’m not 100 percent sure but I think I saw a body on the bed.’ They followed me in. We then observed with a lamp that it was a body. Mick Carroll (his colleague) then contacted the gardai. I did not know who lived in this house. I never observed anyone entering or leaving his house.”
Meanwhile, Garda Siobhan Costello of Mallow Garda Station attended at the scene after the workers called gardai having made the grim discovery. She told the inquest that the workers had advised her that they had been at the house as a result of a compulsory purchase order put on the house by Cork County Council.
"I entered the front room and immediately turned left into what looked like a bedroom", she said. "There I observed a body in a skeletal manner laid on a bed. It had a blanket laid over it. All that was visible to the eye was the head and everything else was covered by a blanket.”
Garda Costello said the scenes of crime officers were contacted to attend the scene, according to the Irish Mirror. Local GP Dr Marian Donovan was called to officially pronounce the death of the man. The body was subsequently brought to the morgue in Cork University Hospital for a postmortem examination.
Sgt Eileen Kelly of Mallow Garda Station said in her evidence that she searched through documents found in an effort to identify the deceased. She found amongst other items receipts from a dental practice, a memorial card from 1980 , a receipt from Tesco from January 9, 2001, an AIB book in the name of Timothy O’Sullivan and diary entries from January 9, 10 and 11, 2001. In one of the diaries Mr O’Sullivan had noted that he had gone to Tesco “for the first time".
Social welfare records indicated that Mr O’Sullivan had been in receipt of Job Seekers Allowance from October 4, 2000 to January 23, 2001. His claim closed automatically from January 23, 2001 as he failed to collect three payments in a row and the the system automatically closes a claim when three payments go uncollected at the post office. Mr O’Sullivan had missed collection on January 9, 16 and 23, 2001.
Coroner Dr Michael Kennedy said that in all probability Mr O'Sullivan, who was born in Cahirsiveen in Co Kerry in 1939, had died in the property on a date unknown between January 9 and 23, 2001.
Assistant State Pathologist Dr Margaret Bolster gave an account of her findings at post-mortem. She said that that the remains were “totally skeletal except for some mummification".
She reassured a nephew of the deceased who was present in court for the inquest that no evidence of trauma or fracture was identified. Dr Bolster said that there was no suggestion that the late Tim O’Sullivan died in any manner other than "peacefully" in his bed. Whilst no cause of death could be determined there was no suggestion of foul play.
A statement was read in to the record from Maureen O’Sullivan who is a sister of the deceased. She said that the late Tim O’Sullivan hailed from a family of five. She stated that Tim was the first born of the children with all of his other siblings being UK nationals.
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