Sunday, August 29, 2010

Las Vegas woman missing for four months found dead under pile of junk in her house

The home of Billie Jean James (below) was cluttered with junk and rotting food, police say.
Jacobson/AP
The home of Billie Jean James (below) was cluttered with junk and rotting food, police say.
Morris/AP

A woman who lived her life as a pack rat was so good at hoarding her dead body remained hidden in her home four months after she died.

The woman's husband, Bill James, claims he had no idea his wife Billie Jean's corpse was under a ceiling-high pile of junk in their Las Vegas home.

Area cops scoured the house and even used dogs that were deployed to find bodies at Ground Zero, but never found Billie Jean's body.

It wasn't until this week that Bill James noticed his 67-year-old wife's feet sticking out from under a pile that the search came to an end.

"For our dogs to go through that house and not find something should be indicative of the tremendous environmental challenges they faced," police spokesman Bill Cassell told The Associated Press.

It may take months for an exact cause of death to be found, the police said.

The woman was last seen in April, police said, and a massive search of the desert ensued.

Cassell said the James' home was jam-packed with rotting food, clothes and reeked with horrible odors. Small paths for walking were carved out of the mess, he said.

Bill James defended his wife Friday, saying people shouldn't criticize their lifestyle.

"Yes there was clutter in the house and yes we found Billie underneath some stuff," he told KTNV in Las Vegas.

"This is really hard. I really don't need all the sensationalism," said.

"I'm really sick of it."

Posted via email from Wesley83's Posterous

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