A 66-year-old Connecticut woman was killed when the first floor of her rubbish-filled home collapsed under its own weight.
Beverly Mitchell, said to be a hoarder, was found dead Saturday under a pile of debris in the basement of her Cheshire home, NBC Connecticut reported. A postal worker noticed on Thursday that mail was piling up and notified local police, but it wasn't until Saturday that officials were able to enter the Winslow Road home because of the extent of the damage from the collapsed floor.
"The third day they located her, and I guess she was in there for a pretty long time,' neighbor Ryan O'Conner told the station.
The home was filled with piles of junk that stretched from the floor to the ceiling, Mary Stopkoski, a neighbor who described Mitchell as a "hoarder to the extreme," told the station.
"She saved newspapers, she saved every piece of paper," Stopkoski said, adding that Mitchell hardly left her house. "I think she just kind of packed herself right in there without realizing that this was what she was doing."
Emergency responders had to break through a wall and use an excavator to plough through the trash, witnesses told NBC Connecticut. Mitchell was found underneath a pile of junk that fell when the first floor collapsed.
Mitchell, who lived in the house for several decades, had apparently moved into her basement. But Stopkoski said she had not seen Mitchell in a month, and other neighbors thought she moved out.
The cause of death has not yet been determined pending an autopsy from the state medical examiner's office, the station reported. Police do not suspect foul play.
The home was designated a hazmat zone and will most likely be demolished, authorities told NBC Connecticut.
Residents in the area said there was not much they could have done to prevent the unfortunate incident.
"Nobody was going to force her out of her house no matter what you did," Stopkoski told the station. "My only hope is she didn't suffer in there."
