The body of a retired Connecticut detective was found buried in “deplorable conditions” inside her hoarder home more than eight months after she was last seen alive, police revealed this week.
Mary A. Notarangelo, 73, had to be removed from her Glastonbury home with an excavator after conditions inside made it nearly impossible to search the property, Police Chief Marshall Porter told the Connecticut Insider this week.
The deceased was a hoarder who kept many unnecessary items in her home, making it hard to find her body amid the pile of rubbish in her home.
Cops “weren’t equipped to handle” what they found when they tried to search the property, Porter said.
“I’ve never seen such deplorable conditions. Hoarders usually have paths. But this was like just piled floor to almost ceiling,” Porter said. “You literally would have had to climb over stuff.”
De@d birds were found in cages along with mice running about the house and a live cat, along with a terrible stench, according to a police report released Wednesday, June 18.
A cadaver dog, a drone, and specialist state environmental agency and biohazard waste collection workers were all called in, Porter said.
The drone was disabled after cobwebs entangled themselves around its blades, according to police.
Notarangelo was last seen alive over a year ago on June 12 last year, according to police.
She was reported missing on July 3, 2024, by a man who occasionally helped her with tasks around the house, Porter said.
Officers couldn’t physically enter the home because of the items piled up, and also searched the nearby woods surrounding her remote home.
But cops doubted she had gotten far since she used a walker, Porter said.
Although police didn’t see any evidence that she was alive, they were concerned about cleaning her entire house at an estimated cost of $100,000.
But as the months dragged on, Porter decided they had no other choice, he said.
Cops made several attempts to search the home, but it wasn’t until the biohazard company’s second attempt in February this year using an excavator that her skeletal remains were found under a pile of debris just inside her front door, Porter said.
“They were prepared with equipment and dumpsters to excavate the entire house,” Porter said, but Notarangelo’s remains were found shortly after they began their work.
The cause and manner of her de@th is undetermined, a staff member of the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner told Connecticut Insider.
“It’s tragic and very strange,” he said.
