The decomposed corpse of a German man was found alone in his bed after nearly seven years, police in the western city of Essen said Thursday.

What if he wasn’t alone when they found him? I think that would have been really weird.

The police said in a statement the man was 59 and unemployed at the time of his death. He most likely died of natural causes on November 30, 2000, the date he received a letter from the Welfare Office found in the apartment, police said.

Next to the dead man’s bed police found cigarettes, an open television guide and Deutschemark coins, which came out of circulation after the euro was introduced in 2002.

“No one missed him. No missing person report was ever filed,” the police said.



  1. Misanthropic Scott says:

    in the western city of Essen??!!?

    No one in the city smelled him? For seven years? Either this is not really my definition of city or the city could really use to be hosed down more frequently.

  2. OhForTheLoveOf says:

    I have no idea why that f’ed up picture is attached to this story… but this story is truly sad.

    In fact, I’m gonna go cry now.

  3. bs says:

    Is that the cat/human from Red Dwarf or Michael Jackson???

  4. flyingelvis says:

    No, it’s a picture of #2.

  5. Todd says:

    “No one missed him.” That is the saddest part.

  6. Angel H. Wong says:

    That explains why so many old men from the EU and NA come to these nations and marry.

  7. Where did he live? Was it a house, an apartment, or what?
    No bill collectors? No rent collectors or landlord?
    If he owned the place, would someone have come looking for some property taxes?
    Just an eerie reminder of se7en.

  8. Misanthropic Scott says:

    I don’t know enough to agree or disagree about this being sad. He was clearly alone. I don’t think we can know whether he was lonely. If we can hope for a moment that he was alone but not lonely, then it might be nice not to make people sad when one dies. If we assume that he was genuinely lonely, that is sad. Other than that unknown though, the guy seems to have died of natural causes in bed. There are a lot worse ways to go than that.

  9. bs says:

    #8 To paraphrase the caveman on the geico comm.

    Uhh.. What?

  10. Why is it neccessarily sad that nobody missed him?

    Isn’t it possible that he wasn’t a nice person? Obviously we dont know. Maybe he was a saint. But surely we don’t have to automatically assume that someone who dies in unfortunate circumstances was a good person who deserved to be missed?

  11. Misanthropic Scott says:

    #9 – bs,

    Uhh.. What?

    Sorry I wasn’t clear.

    One may be alone but not necessarily lonely. If that is the case here, he died peacefully in bed, an OK way to go. No one grieved. No one was sad. Why should anyone on this thread be?

    If on the other hand, he was truly lonely, then it is sad.

    Clearer?

  12. tallwookie says:

    #8 – He may or may not have been lonley, be he deffinately didnt die alone – he had tv & the tv guide. Since TV raised the majority of my generation, I tend to think of the “tv as it was” fondly.

    today’s tv sucks

  13. Rod says:

    … he’s a real nowhere man sitting in his nowhere land. the late great j.L.

  14. Misanthropic Scott says:

    #13 – Rod,

    I think there are some lines from Eleanor Rigby that state it better.

    Eleanor rigby died in the church and was buried along with her name.
    Nobody came.

    Though these lyrics assume that alone always means lonely, a point with which I disagree.


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