Family Sits Dead In House Since 1999...Just Discovered(Florida...Shocked?)

News-Press.Com | 11-20-02 | Adam Kovac

[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.

[Registered]

LOL

[TheLion]

What is important about us knowing the dog perished, in advance of the story?

[chaosagent]

Light bulbs left on all the time will last a long time.

It's the turning them off and on a lot that burns 'em out.

[Mike Fieschko]

There is food in the refrigerator that has expiration dates of 1999

Reminds me of Leslie Nielsen opening the Chinese food container.

[Ed Condon]

I'd like to know how they avoided getting "junk mail",
or did they have a slot in the door so no one saw it piling up?

[Salvation]

**Nonetheless, 2000 election records will certainly show that they did in fact vote for Gore.**

LOL!

[Sapper26]

And if they're buried in Chicago, the can still vote for Dem's.

[My Favorite Headache]

I know. I was thinking the same thing. I wonder if the dog lived longer than we think and he started eating the owner? Cold have been drinking from the toilet?

[My Favorite Headache]

LMAO

[altair]

I don't know about Florida. In California it should be possible. If you vote at the polls you have to sign the register, if you vote absentee you are given a numbered absentee ballot (on the stub) and a code that goes on the outside of the return envelope.

[Xenalyte]

Ping to #9!

[FLdeputy]

In Florida?!? Cold enough for a heater?

Absolutely, it’s the humidity that makes it bad. I’ve lived all over the world including Germany, New Jersey, and North Carolina, and I’ve never felt colder then I did last winter in Florida. However, I do live in the panhandle and we’re sometimes considered South Alabama. =)

[stainlessbanner]

we’re sometimes considered South Alabama.

The Republic of West Florida!

[billbears]

Now I don't know about that. From a life long North Carolinian our winters usually run a good 10-15 degrees at our coldest than Florida I'd think. And you know we've got the humidity. Course I spent 7 years in the mountains and I don't remember seeing in snowstorms in FL

[Bob Quixote]

Floridians think so. My brother lights a fire when it goes down to 50 at night!

[Bacon Man]

Were they logged on to America Online? Did someone pick up the telephone to see if they were still on hold for tech support?

LOL!

[SerpentDove]

>>This story reminds me of the guy who was found dead in his home after a couple of years with the Christmas lights still on.<<

I remember that, too.

He was in Germany (did they find him 3 or 4 years ago?) He had a TV guide in his lap dated 1985.

He was sitting in his chair in front of his TV, which was still on, all mummified like these. He had been a mean old recluse, so nobody missed him. They all thought he had moved away.

[Tribune7]

That's the one. And I think it was an apartment building. Serious rent protection.

[Sub-Driver]

did they vote in 2000?