This is how I want to die…in front of the tube
From the UPI:
Police on the east end of New York’s Long Island found the body of a man dead more than a year sitting in front of his television, which was still on.
Vincenzo Riccardi, who was blind from diabetes, had apparently not been seen or heard from since December 2005, Newsday reported. But his neighbors, thinking he had been hospitalized or moved to a nursing home, did not think to check on him.
The body was found Thursday by officers in Southampton who were checking on a report that a pipe had burst.
Jeff Bacchus, an assistant at the Suffolk County morgue, said the body was well preserved because of a lack of humidity.
You could see his face. He still had hair on his head, Bacchus said. I’ve been on the job 35 years, and I’ve never seen anyone dead that long.
Riccardi had been a widower for several years. A neighbor told Newsday she used to read his mail to him and perform other tasks, but stopped when they had a fight in the summer of 2005, after Riccardi demanded that she stay and help him when she had to go to work.
This story is amazing on so many levels. First off, I’d like to know what brand television he had? I bet it was a Sony. Most TV’s won’t run continuously for a year without something going wrong. Second, who pays this guy’s utility bills, etc.? Or cleaned up the leaves or trash in his yard? Come on, we’re talking a full year here. Finally, was the remote still in his hand?
This reminds me of this story and this story.
tags: mummy
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February 22nd, 2007 at 1:16 pm
I had a Sony TV that failed on me less than 5 years after I got it. Surprising but true. In Riccardi’s case, the thing that hits me is that, unlike the Eric Taylor case, Riccardi had no family around. His wife died, and he either didn’t have kids or was estranged from them.
February 26th, 2007 at 6:01 am
[…] so he could use the High Occupancy Vehicle lane on the Long Island Expressway. Comment? This is how I want to die…in […]
February 26th, 2007 at 6:36 pm
I have previously written about Vincenzo Riccardi (also see tags) and Eric Taylor (also see tags). As a reminder: Vincenzo Riccardi was the Long Island man who died in his home with the television still on, and no one knew about it for more than a year. Eric Taylor was the Indiana boy who died of cancer, and all of the people in his town and surrounding states knew about his illness after publicity from Larry Sparks, Diamond Hill Station