'Mummified' Body Found In Blue Island Home
BLUE ISLAND, Ill. (CBS) -- A body found yesterday in a Blue Island house that had become an eyesore may have been there for several months, but possibly could have been found much sooner by police.
The Cook County Medical Examiner's Office says an autopsy was to be done today on the mummified body. The person has not been officially identified.
Postal carrier Ebony Beck says she called police "at least six months ago" for a well-being check on a 70-year old man who neighbors knew as Sonny Davis. Beck says she was there when Blue Island police showed up to the house months ago at 2845 West 141st Place. She says officers knocked and tried to see if any doors were unlocked and they weren't, so they left.
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Neighbor Shirley Osborne says police said they didn't want to break down the man's door because they wouldn't be able to lock it afterwards.
Beck says she "thought that they should have done more than that".
Osborne says Sonny Davis was living with his parents in the house when she moved next door in 1967. She says Davis' older sister eventually moved out and had brought him food for some time.
Osborne says she was concerned about her neighbor but figured that, "if police came and still nothing happened, I figured maybe he ain't in there….moved away…or was in the hospital or a nursing home".
Postal carrier Ebony Beck says she continued to be concerned about the man's safety and was advised by co-workers to send back his mail to their senders as a possible alert that something was wrong. She says she even sent back Christmas cards and, yet, no one became alarmed.
Beck says police, at first, brought the man's mail to the post office because it was "piling up" and that kids were "messing with it". She says that it was a week or two later she called Blue Island police to make the well-being check.
Another neighbor who identified herself as Shirley Smith lives on the other side of the Davis home. She says, "everybody's surprised" he was apparently found dead in the house. Smith says police drive up and down 141st Place all the time and "should have noticed the grass getting high". Smith claimed to have seen her neighbor alive as recently as a month ago.
The Cook County Medical Examiner's Office says it is waiting for Blue Island police to help determine, for sure, who the man is.
Blue Island police have been contacted for comment by phone and in person but have not yet responded.
At 2845 W. 141st Pl. sits a white, two-story frame house with an overgrowth of weeds and bushes. A green Ford Focus sits on the property. It's license plates expire in July.
