Recluse Son Lived With 94-Year-Old Father’s Decomposing Body For 4 Months Until A Neighbor Discovered The Skeletal Remains Sitting In An Armchair


Timothy Brown, 59, who lived a reclusive lifestyle with his father in Stafford after the death of his mother in 2004, was arrested last year after a neighbor discovered the decomposing body of his 94-year-old father, Kenneth, sitting in an armchair in their living room, reported the Mirror. Brown had lived with his father’s dead body for four months before his neighbor discovered the body and notified the police.

According to the neighbor — whose name has been withheld — when he visited Brown’s home on October 18, 2014, “The back door was open, from the kitchen I could hear the TV was on loudly in the living room. Tim was in there watching TV. I spoke to Tim for a few minutes from the hall, before I opened the door fully. As I looked at the chair I wasn’t sure what I was looking at. I could see a skull, I was very shocked.”

The police was immediately called to the residence, where they were shocked to discover the decomposing body of an elderly man wearing pajamas, sitting in an armchair. Brown, who had been caring for his father for 10 years, claimed that after his father died in June of last year from a “fall during a bedroom blaze” caused by an electric heater, he dragged his father to the living room where he placed him in his favorite chair.

However, it wasn’t until the following day that he discovered that his father had died as a result of his injuries, but he failed to notify police and continued on with his life. Brown stated that he didn’t report his father’s death because he couldn’t come to terms with it. Sources say Kenneth’s body went undiscovered for months because it was seldom that the father and son had any visitors.

“Unfortunately, Timothy didn’t call the emergency services,” said Detective Con Andrew Weatherley. “He couldn’t come to terms with the fact his father had passed away. The pair had led a reclusive life together and were very close. He had left his father there over the course of several months and just lived with it.”

“He realized he should have reported the death but couldn’t bring himself to do it. There was no obvious motive for him to cause the death of his father and it was decided he should not face criminal charges. At the end of the day he had lost his father. There was no motive to cause the death of his father.”

The Sentinel reported that although Kenneth’s remains were examined by the local coroner’s office, the cause of death was not determined due the body’s state of decomposition. However, the medical examiner uncovered that Brown’s father sustained a number of fractures to his rib, which corresponded with Brown’s story. Although Timothy Brown was initially arrested for “offences of concealing a body and preventing a burial,” due to the examiners’ findings, “Staffordshire Police decided that it was not in the public interest to prosecute him.”

D.C. Weatherley stated that “There was no obvious motive for him to cause the death of his father and it was decided he should not face criminal charges.”

“It is a very sad case indeed,” said coroner Margaret Jones. “His son failed to deal with his father’s death appropriately. The pair were very reclusive until the alarm was raised by a neighbor. It is not possible for me to conclude that this was an accident as there is one piece of the jigsaw missing.”

“Kenneth was last seen alive in April and his body was found in October but because of the decomposition of the body a cause of death cannot be ascertained.”

[Image via Shutterstock]

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