New homeowner finds corpse of former resident in house

Police say foul play not suspected

The property was bought in a foreclosure sale (NBC News)

A person who bought a property in Maryland made a shuddering discovery – the body of a woman who once had lived there.

Reports said the property in District Heights, located ten miles east of Washington DC, had been bought in a foreclosure sale.

It is not known how long ago the 39-year-old woman had died, or when precisely the home was sold.

A man who lived close to the property, told NBC News the woman had special needs.

“As we grew up into adults, she never grew up,” he said.

“So she needed help with things and didn’t process things as well as an adult would, even though she was an adult.”

The man said the woman had been taken care of by her grandmother, but that she had died more than 12 months ago.

“Especially when her grandmother passed away, that’s what made us come over and just make sure everything was cool — she had food, she had rides to the store, things like that,” say the man.

The woman originally had a caregiver, but that person stopped visiting some months ago, he added.

The outlet quoted police sources as saying there was no sign of foul play, and that a post-mortem of the woman’s body, discovered last Saturday, was underway.

“If we knew that she was still in there, we would have at least knocked on the door,” said neighbour said. “We would have at least asked her is everything OK.”