Posted on 11/20/2002 8:10:29 PM PST by My Favorite Headache
Dead since 1999: Gruesome discovery in Lehigh
Dog perished with two Germans
By ADAM KOVAC, akovac@news-press.com
Lee County sheriff’s deputies found two mummified bodies in a Lehigh Acres home Wednesday that they believe have been dead since 1999.
Josef Fuchs Jr., 34, was found under the covers in bed, with a dead German shepherd next to him. His mother, Liz Fuchs, 70, was found on the floor by the dining room table with a blanket over her.
Heinz Rubin, 66, of Fort Myers, found the bodies when he went to check on the pair at their home at East Fifth Street and Hamilton Avenue after the property taxes were not paid.
The other bills were automatically paid through an electronic account. The lights and the air-conditioning were on in the residence.
Rubin has known the family since 1988 and managed the home for them while they were in Germany. He last saw them at the beginning of January 1999.
“They were in good spirits, I would say,” Rubin said. “There was nothing wrong. (Josef) said I’d like to go back to Germany.”
Rubin said no one had seen them since 1999 and in 2000 the police went to their apartment in Aachen, Germany near the Belgium border and they were not there. There was an indication the two had gone to Florida.
“I’d like to know too if it was a murder-suicide and where’s their rental car,” Rubin said. “It’s a pity.”
Rubin said Josef Fuchs, who had a nervous system disorder, was very smart and studied at a university in Germany.
“He was her only boy and even though he was in his 30s she still called him her little boy and he was always trying to prove that he was a big boy,” Heinz said.
There is no visible cause of death, said Lee County sheriff’s Maj. Richard Chard. He said investigators are looking at some medications found in the home.
Both bodies were mummified, he said.
There is food in the refrigerator that has expiration dates of 1999 and the last day on the calendar is Feb. 28, 1999, Chard said.
The grass in the front yard stands about three to four feet tall among the nearby homes with well-manicured yards. Children played soccer in a nearby yard as detectives investigated.
Detectives are canvassing the neighborhood, trying to determine the last time someone saw them.
Obviously there was no homeowner's association.
That has to be the goofiest sub-head of all time!
I'M not saying anything about the relationship. Just repeating the facts stated in the article. fsf
Gets cold in Florida that time of year.
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