Police Could Charge Yonkers Woman After Finding Father's Decomposing Body In Home
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- An extreme case of hoarding in Yonkers has police now exploring criminal charges.
Authorities are still waiting to get autopsy results in the death of Roy Swenson – believed to be in his 90's -- before they decide if they'll charge his daughter, Christina Swenson.
Swenson, who cops say is an extreme hoarder, allegedly kept her father's dead body in her home for three to eight years.
Last Friday, authorities found the elder Swenson inside the home of his 61-year-old daughter on Alexander Avenue. The home was filled with trash, mold and other debris. Police had to wear protective gear to get through the mess.
White Plains Anxiety and Phobia Center Director Dr. Frederic Neuman told WCBS 880's Catherine Cioffi that keeping a dead body and being a hoarder were two completely different things.
WCBS 880's Catherine Cioffi Speaks With Dr. Frederic Neuman About Hoarding
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"Hoarding is a relatively common kind of problem. Holding onto dead bodies is not, and it's unusual enough so that I would suspect that there might be a financial motive in someone doing that," he said, citing Social Security fraud as an example.
Neuman went on to say that hoarders were people who "typically hold onto papers [and] old records."
"They have the impression that certain things that they have might somehow or other, be useful down the road," he said.
Neighbors had apparently been complaining about the conditions – including rats and bad smells -- at the home for years.
Police showed up at the home Thursday night, but because of the filth inside they couldn't go in without a full-scale HAZMAT team. That team was assembled Friday morning, and the elderly man's remains were found already decomposed on a bedroom floor.
Christina Swenson has been hospitalized at a psychiatric facility.
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