UNION CITY — The original missing person’s report turned out to be a simple misunderstanding, but along the way police here stumbled across a much darker mystery.
Inside the home of a missing 95-year-old woman, police discovered the partially mummified body of a man. He apparently died in the bathroom, while seated on the toilet, and that’s where he remained for weeks or months afterward, until a group of Union City police officers made the grisly discovery.
Now, more than two months later, police still have no concrete idea how he died, nor do they know his name or age. The Alameda County Coroner is still working to make those determinations, but until that happens he will remain an official “John Doe,” authorities said.
Authorities say they still have no clear picture of who this man was, including his age or any definitive information of his identity.
It all started in mid-August, when a relative of the 95-year-old called police and reported her missing. The relative was concerned because the woman has Alzheimer’s and is unable to care for herself, police said at the time.
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The entire thing was a misunderstanding — the 95-year-old had actually been checked into a care home nearly two years earlier and lives there now, and no one had informed her concerned relative. But before police were able to make that determination, they sent out a missing person’s alert to the public, and headed to the 300 block of Appian Way, the 95-year-old’s last known address.
What the officers found was a nauseating scene of neglect and disrepair. The front yard was full of trash, old newspapers, discarded furniture and rotting food. Inside, police found a “noticeable presence” of flies and spider webs, and “numerous piles of trash” scattered throughout the home, according to one officer’s report.
The only resident, a man in his 50s related to the 95-year-old woman, greeted police but refused to let them inside. Authorities say he appeared to have a mental illness and was barely alive, having not bathed or cut his hair or fingernails in quite some time. There was mold growing on his ear, authorities said.
The man was placed in an involuntary mental health hold, and authorities began the unenviable task of searching the home. That’s where they found the body of Doe in the bathroom.
Union City police Lt. Sergio Quintero said that no manner of death has been officially ruled out, but that the preliminary indications are that this wasn’t a homicide. He said police will continue to investigation until a final determination is made.
“We treat every suspicious death as a potential homicide from the start,” Quintero said in a phone interview. “But that’s not where this investigation is heading, as of right now.”