Man finds wife’s body in rubbish heap after four months

LONDON - A US man has found the body of his wife buried under piles of rubbish at their home, four months after she went missing, a media report said Monday.

Billie Jean James was found by her shocked husband who incredibly had been living in the same house as his wife’s corpse, Daily Mail reported on its website.

He spotted one of her feet sticking out from underneath the mountain of rubbish and clutter that littered their Las Vegas home.

Police had searched the house several times while looking for 67-year-old Billie Jean James, who was known to be a compulsive hoarder.

Sniffer dogs, used to locate bodies at the site of Ground Zero in New York after the 9/11 terror attack, were also sent into the single-storey property in Las Vegas.

But they were unable to locate the body amid floor to ceiling piles of clothes, rubbish, empty food boxes and other goods that “hoarder” James had stored.

“For our dogs to go through that house and not find something should be indicative of the tremendous environmental challenges they faced,” said Las Vegas police spokesman Bill Cassell.

Friends said Billie was compulsive hoarder who spent her weekends buying goods at car boot sales. She also frequented thrift shops and refused to allow anyone into her house because she was so ashamed of the mess.

Police said small pathways had been forged through the clutter to allow the couple to move around the house.

Her husband reported about his missing wife to police in April. He feared she might have suffered a stroke and become disorientated.

He paid for posters and banners to be put up in the Las Vegas area and created a Facebook page in the hope of solving what had happened to his wife.

A reward of 7,500 pounds was also offered and digital billboards with James’s photograph were placed around the Las Vegas “Strip” where most of the casinos are based.

The couple, who had been married 40 years, had built a second home on their property to hold all of her belongings.

Bill James said he found the body while cleaning out a back room in one of the homes that James called her “rabbit hole”. He spotted one of her feet sticking out from under the rubbish and alerted authorities.

The Las Vegas medical examiner said it could be several weeks before a cause of death is determined.

Friends of James, a peace activist, said her hoarding had got out of control.

“She became this hoarder person and she wouldn’t let anyone come in her house,” said Sari Connolly. “It went out of control.”