A woman who was searching for the Christmas decorations found her missing husband's corpse stuffed in a closet eight months after he went missing.
Jennifer Maedge reported her husband Richard, 53, from Illinois, US, missing on April 27 last year after he phoned her to say he was leaving work early.
She came back home to discover his car on the driveway and headed inside and found his wallet, keys and cards in the house - but there was no sign of the dad-of-three.
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Police had searched the "sewer-like" house, which was described as a "hoarder home", but could not find him.
However, it wasn't until December 11 that Jennifer suddenly found Richard's body.
She was looking for Christmas decorations in a storage area inside the closet when she stumbled upon her husband.
Jennifer said: "I decided to put the Christmas tree up, and I was looking for a tote of Christmas ornaments, and that's when I discovered him."
She said she had rarely visited the closet as it was stuffed with tonnes of rubbish.
But on Thursday, it was revealed in a coroner's report Richard had died by suicide and his body had become mummified by the time he was discovered.
According to the coroner, once the body is past the stage of decomposition, it will not give off any pungent smells - which might have helped discovered Richard earlier.
Officers came to search the house twice after reporting a strange odour in the house.
However, cops put the smell down to down to the tons of rubbish inside the home and plumber even fixed one of the sewer pipes outside to help get rid of the smell.
According to Jennifer, the smell eventually subsided.
Richard's sister, Marilyn Toliver, has slammed the police for not finding her brother earlier and believes officers could have done more.
However, she praised officers for finding the body and helping give the family some closure.
Marilyn said: "Even though we didn't want the outcome that we had, it's still an outcome that we can put him to rest."
Troy police refuted Marilyn's claims and said they undertook extensive searches of the home and the surrounding areas.
The coroner concluded: "There were no other injuries found during the autopsy examination or evidence found that would indicate anything nefarious regarding Mr Maedge's death."
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