$7 Million In Gold Found In Dead Man’s Carson City Home

Walter Samaszko Jr., a 69-year-old hermit, was found dead in his Carson City, Nevada home. Samaszko may have died with only $200 in his bank account, but officials later found about $7 million in gold around his house.

NBC News reports that Samaszko’s neighbors called authorities in late June due to an emenating smell coming from Samaszko’s house. Samaszko may have been a recluse and a hermit who hate the government, but it had been awhile since his neighbors had seen him.

According to the coroner, Samaszko died from heart problems and had been dead for about a month when he was found.

According to the Tahoe Daily Tribune, Carson City clerk-recorder Alan Glover called in Aftermath to handle cleanup and called Lawyer Dawn Ellerbrock to handle the probate and help locate any living relatives.

“I needed a favor from her because I didn’t think there was anything in it (the estate),” Glover said.

This was not the case because it was not long before the cleanup crew called Glover back to the house. They had found lots of gold in boxes in the garage

“At that point, we took the house apart,” Glover said.

Glover and his crew did a thorough search of the house and the crawl space underneath the house as well as a full sweep of the yard using a metal detector. After the search, Glover and his team discovered boxes and boxes of gold coins and bullion neatly wrapped in aluminum foil and plastic cases.

“There were dos-pesos smaller than a dime, five-peso coins, $20 gold pieces, gold sovereigns, Austrian ducats, Krugerrands; you name it, (he) had it.”

Glover says that he estimates the value of gold, based on the weight of the gold alone, to be $7 million. However, since some of the coins appear to be collectors items, the value could be much higher. Some of the English Sovereigns, Glover says, date back to the 1840s. He is hiring an expert to value the coins.

Glover’s goal at this point is to get the most money for Samaszko’s only living heir, his first cousin Arlene who is a substitute teacher in San Rafael, California. This means dealing with the IRS, who wants up to 75 percent of the total depending on whether or not Samaszko and his mother filed their taxes properly.

Glover says that the IRS will be wanting a mimimum of $800,000.