‘Mummified’ body found in Blue Island
BY STEVE METSCH smetsch@southtownstar.com May 23, 2012 12:42PM
Uncollected mail first raised the concern of a local postal worker which later revealed the mummified body in the Blue Island home at 2845 W. 141st Place. A man who lived there was last heard from in January. | Larry Ruehl~Sun-Times Media
Updated: July 3, 2012 8:54AM
The mummified body of an older man was discovered Tuesday at his house in Blue Island, authorities said.
Exactly how long the man was dead was not known Wednesday, but an autopsy determined that he died of heart disease, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office.
Authorities had not positively identified the man as of Wednesday night. Blue Island Police Chief Doug Hoglund said the man lived alone in the two-story house in the 2800 block of 141st Place.
Shirley Osborne, a neighbor who has lived next door for 40 years, identified the house’s resident as Eugene Davis, whom records show lived at the address.
“He was a very friendly man. We used to talk in the yard,” Osborne said. “He grew up in that house.”
Neighbors who had not seen Davis for a while called police Tuesday and asked them to conduct a well-being check, Hoglund said.
Osborne, 69, said she thought police had conducted a check, possibly months ago. She said the Postal Service had stopped delivering mail at that time because it had piled up, and a postal carrier requested a well-being check.
At the house on Wednesday, weeds and grass were high around a green Ford Focus and a red MG sports car parked on a grass-lined driveway. Osborne said she suspected something was wrong when the grass wasn’t being cut.
The medical examiner’s office said it could take months or “as little as two weeks in 100-degree heat” for a body to deteriorate to a mummified condition.
Contributing:
Sun-Times Media Wire
