A retired detective was found dead inside a Connecticut hoarder house some six months after she was first reported missing, police said.
Mary Notarangelo was last seen alive in June 2024 and reported missing in July the same year. Nearly six months later her skeletal remains were discovered during the excavation of massive debris piles inside her single-family home in Glastonbury. They were were found beneath a pile of rubbish heaped just inside her front door, according to a police report released Wednesday.
Marshall Porter, chief of the Glastonbury Police Department, said officers attempted to search the house several times, but the conditions inside made it nearly impossible. He told CT Insider that their initial efforts included a cadaver dog, a drone and called in specialized staff from the state’s environmental agency and a biohazard waste collection company, but they were ultimately unsuccessful.
Police “weren’t equipped to handle” what they saw in the house, he said.
It wasn’t until their second attempt in February, that they found Notarangelo.
According to the report, 6-foot-tall “mountains” of garbage blocking entrance doors. Once they managed to get inside, they “observed more mountains of garbage, cobwebs, and spiders,” Officer Anthony Longo wrote.
“There was no path whatsoever,” he continued. “The only way to move from room to room was by climbing over the garbage.”
Mice were also running rampant, and many of Notarangelo’s pet birds were also dead, causing a tremendous stench.
Notarangelo, a dedicated Wiccan and retired Bridgeport detective, was 73 years old. Her cause and manner of her death is undetermined, a staff member of the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner said.
A friend was the last person known to speak to her. He said she texted him around June 12, 2024, saying she was having abdominal cramps, vomiting and had fallen. He said he did not return her messages and it is unclear why it took him weeks to report her missing.
With News Wire Services
