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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Michael Sainato

New homeowner finds skeletal remains of three people in auction-bought Connecticut home

A home surrounded by trees
The home in Burlington, Connecticut, where skeletal remains were found. Photograph: Google Maps

A person who bought a foreclosed home, as is, in Burlington, Connecticut, discovered the skeletal remains of three people when they first entered the residence.

The Connecticut state police reported they received a call on Sunday at 4.46pm from the new homeowner reporting the remains.

The police stated the medical examiner “has not determined a cause of death; however, there is no indication of anything suspicious and no indication of any criminal aspect. The identification of the three individuals is not yet confirmed.”

According to property records, the home was bought in 2019. The foreclosure process began in August 2025.

The Connecticut marshal Grant Carragher told CTInsider that the couple who bought the home in 2019 could not be reached throughout the foreclosure process. Carragher believes the property had been abandoned for at least a year and noted that neighbors said they had not seen the residents in years.

A court approved the home for a foreclosure auction on 23 March, which was held on 6 June, to sell the house in “as is condition”.

Chris Thogmartin, the independent third-party attorney appointed by the court to manage the sale, told NBC Connecticut why auction bidders may not see the interior of a house in auctions before buying.

“I always send out a letter, like the week before the auction saying, listen, you know, there’s a foreclosure auction scheduled. It would be helpful for the bidders to have interior access. You’re not required to provide this, but I think it might be in your best interest,” Thogmartin said. “We never got a response to that, which is not unusual.”

The discovery of the remains could invalidate the sale.

In a motion filed in court by Thogmartin this week, he wrote the bodies were “in an advanced state of decomposition, indicating that they had been there for some time.”

He added in the motion that “while a disturbing mystery in and of itself, the discovery of these human remains poses a possible question as to the validity of the foreclosure judgment, depending upon the identify [sic] of the bodies and the time of death”.

Thogmartin asked for “direction” from the court, including returning the winning auction bidder’s deposit of $82,000 if the auction and closing were to be canceled due to the discovery of the remains.

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