It was a tragic ending to a former police sergeant’s life.
A 73-year old woman in the state of Connecticut in the U.S. was found lifeless in her home after having been reported missing for months.
Recently released police investigation photos and videos show squalid living conditions, as the woman suffered from hoarding disease.
Police found the body of Mary Notarangelo 7 months after the first welfare check
Image credits: WTNH News8
According to the Associated Press, Mary Notarangelo was a retired police sergeant who lived in the town of Glastonbury, just southeast of Hartford.
She had kept to herself, mostly.
When a friend didn’t hear from her for over a month, police made a welfare check, but could barely move around in the house because it was so covered in things, including trash and bird cages.
Image credits: Glastonbury Police Department
Police made several additional attempts to reach Notarangleo, each time failing. Her remains were finally found some seven months after the first welfare call.
A local media outlet from Connecticut, CT Insider, recently obtained the photos and videos of those initial police searches and what they show is jaw-dropping.
Moldy cardboard, used fast food cartons, and rat feces were amongst the items found
Image credits: Glastonbury Police Department
It was July of 2024, when a friend of Notarangelo called local authorities for a welfare check.
The AP says Notarangelo’s friend received a text from her in mid June of 2024, saying “she was having abdominal cramps, vomiting and had fallen.”
Several weeks later, on July 3rd, the friend contacted police to request a welfare check.
That was the first time police attempted to enter the house.
Image credits: Glastonbury Police Department
In body cam video taken from that day, police are seen pushing down the door, and climbing over garbage piles that were six feet high.
Food and beverage cans, plastic bottles, molded cardboard, wilted fast food containers, rat feces, and more covered the floors, wall-to-wall.
Video taken from inside the police hazmat suits shows utter squalor, with police describing a horrible odor.
And then there were the bird cages. Dozens of them, mostly empty, but some containing bird carcasses.
It was clear that the former inhabitant of the home suffered from a serious case of hoarding disease.
Hoarding is when you can’t get rid of things, and experts say it can be serious
Image credits: Glastonbury Police Department
Hoarding is a mental condition, experts say, that can vary in seriousness depending on the patient, and can result in extremely unsanitary living conditions.
According to the Mayo Clinic, hoarding disorder is the “ongoing difficulty (in) throwing away or parting with possessions because you believe that you need to save them.”
Image credits: Glastonbury Police Department
The site explains that people suffering from hoarding disorder keep or gather large quantities of items that may have no value.
Hoarders often reside in “extremely cramped living conditions with only narrow pathways winding through stacks of clutter.”
Not even drones could get past the extreme refuse in Notarangelo’s home
Image credits: Glastonbury Police Department
Police say those winding pathways were not present in Notarangelo’s home, and wondered aloud how she got around in her home.
Videos and records obtained by CT Insider through a Freedom of Information Request detail the multiple attempts to locate Mary Notarangelo.
After the initial July 3rd, 2024, search, police returned to the premises again on July 5th, 11th, 12th, and November 20th, 2024.
Image credits: Glastonbury Police Department
Each time, hoarding issues were cited as inhibiting the investigation and search.
During at least one of those visits, the AP reports, drones were used inside the house in an attempt to reach spots that workers could not.
But due to heavy cobwebbing and dust, along with precarious piles of refuse, the drones were not successful in locating her, either.
Finally, according to reports, in February of this year, an environmental team used an excavator to carefully remove the debris.
Police say her skeletal remains were found shortly thereafter.
“She loved her animals”: Friends remember Notarangelo
The AP reports that attempts to contact Notarangelo’s brother and niece were unsuccessful, as were attempts to reach her lawyer.
But another friend and former colleague, Patti Steeves, told the outlet that Notarangelo was quirky, but a good person at heart.
Steeves said Notarangelo loved her job, and her faith, Wicca, a pre-Christian nature-based religion.
Image credits: Glastonbury Police Department
“She was passionate about her faith. She was passionate about her job. She had a great sense of humor. And she loved her animals. She loved her animals more than she did herself,” AP quoted Steeves as saying.
The AP reports that Notarangelo worked for the Bridgeport police from 1985 to 1996, having been promoted to detective in 1992 and to sergeant a year later.
“She retired on disability after an on-duty car crash that injured her back and legs,” the AP reports Steeves as saying.
Netizens express surprise over seeing the house of a person with hoarding disease
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