Mummified Body in Hampton Bays Home

Mummified body found in Hampton Bays home
BY SANDRA PEDDIE AND SUSANA ENRIQUEZ
[email protected] and [email protected]

February 16, 2007, 10:30 PM EST

Southampton police responding to burst water pipes in a Hampton Bays home found the mummified body of the owner -- dead for more than a year -- sitting in a chair in front of a television, officials said Friday.

The television was still on.





Vincenzo Riccardi, 70, appeared to have died of natural causes in his home on Wakeman Road, said Dr. Stuart Dawson, Suffolk deputy chief medical examiner.

The medical examiner's office considered his body mummified because the lack of humidity in his home preserved his features, morgue assistant Jeff Bacchus said.

"You could see his face. He still had hair on his head," Bacchus said. "I've been on the job 35 years, and I've never seen anyone dead that long."

Police and county sources said Riccardi, whose body was found Thursday, had not been heard from since December 2005. The medical examiners said they were baffled as to why the electricity would be on in the home all that time.

"He was in his house, sitting in his chair, as if watching television, and the television was, in fact, still on," Dawson said.

Riccardi lived alone, his wife having died years ago, Dawson said. Mail had piled up, but then stopped being delivered.

"He hasn't been heard from in over a year. That's the part that baffles me," he said. "Nobody sounded the alarm."

The police detective who handled the case could not be reached for comment.

Neighbors said they hadn't seen Riccardi for a while. They said they had tried to keep an eye on Riccardi, who had diabetes and had become blind in his 50s, but since his house was up a long driveway and could not be seen from the street, they did not always know what he was doing.

A couple who lived near Riccardi's house, Helen and Pat Boyle, said they never noticed mail piling up by the mailbox, which is visible from the street. A rope was attached by the front door and led to the mailbox so he could retrieve his mail.

"The word going around was that he was in a home," Pat Boyle said.

The couple said Riccardi built the two-story house -- where a waterfall of ice ran down over one of the garage doors from the burst pipe -- after he emigrated from Italy and worked in construction.

"This is a very sad situation that shouldn't have happened," Helen Boyle said.

Neighbor April Cowden said she would occasionally read Riccardi's mail to him, pay his bills and buy him groceries. When he began to demand more of her time in the summer of 2005, she said, they had a falling out. "I needed to go to work [one day] and he wanted me to stay," said Cowden, 37.

About a month later, Cowden said, she saw an ambulance at his house. When she saw the mail pile up, Cowden thought he was in the hospital.

At a neighborhood gathering last month, residents commented that they hadn't seen Riccardi in a while, neighbor Diane Devon said. "We never thought to check on him," she said.


I am so sad by this. This poor man did not have anyone who cared enough to check on him.

Re: Mummified Body in Hampton Bays Home

How weird is it that his electricity was still on?

Re: Mummified Body in Hampton Bays Home

Posted by LisaW

How weird is it that his electricity was still on?

Re: Mummified Body in Hampton Bays Home

It breaks my heart that this poor man was all alone with nobody to even think it odd not to hear from him in a year. It is odd though that his electric was still on, I wonder if someone was paying his bills for him or something.

Re: Mummified Body in Hampton Bays Home

What a tragic way to have your life end.

Re: Mummified Body in Hampton Bays Home

That is so sad that no one bothered to check on him...aparrently he had caring neighbors

Re: Mummified Body in Hampton Bays Home

I am heartbroken over this.


When my neighbor across the hall did not get her morning paper, and I saw it at her door that night, I knocked on her door..worried somethig was wrong...

There was no answer, so I called the rental office to check on her, and she was not not home..turns out she jus left really early that morning!

but OMG, especially the neighbor who would read him his mail, etc...just check on the poor guy

Re: Mummified Body in Hampton Bays Home

Re: Mummified Body in Hampton Bays Home

Posted by LisaW

How weird is it that his electricity was still on?

Re: Mummified Body in Hampton Bays Home

Re: Mummified Body in Hampton Bays Home

When I lived in MA. I rented an apt. in a complex and one day I came home from work with a buddy of mine. When I walk in the front door or the building I was overwhelmed by the horrible smell. I said to my buddy it smells like someone died. Well about 2 hours later the cops showed up and low and behold the lady that lived under me had been dead for what they guess of 6 months. She was an older women and supposedly she had a nurse that would check on her every now and then. Well it turns out that the nurse and her had a falling out and left her a year earlier and the agency never sent another nurse. The story just got so sad the more I talked to the cop. Turns out she has no family her in the states. So sad!

Re: Mummified Body in Hampton Bays Home

Very sad!! Those neighbors should all be ashamed of themselves!!

I wonder how the cops knew about the burst water pipe?

Re: Mummified Body in Hampton Bays Home

I got some cool insider info. on this case!!! One of our directors went up to the Medical Examiner today & he saw him!!! The guy had a son which is the REALLY sad part to me........he spoke to him just after Christmas of 2005 apparantly..........very sad that there was NO contact after that

Re: Mummified Body in Hampton Bays Home

I always wondered before I got married and lived alone that if I died in my apt, how long would it take someone to come looking for me?

But a year????? What kind of neighborhood is that. I mean it's not being nosy to just look in on the elderly, it's what neighbors do for each other.

Re: Mummified Body in Hampton Bays Home

Posted by ValR

The guy had a son which is the REALLY sad part to me........he spoke to him just after Christmas of 2005 apparantly..........very sad that there was NO contact after that

Re: Mummified Body in Hampton Bays Home

Posted by mrswask

Posted by ValR

The guy had a son which is the REALLY sad part to me........he spoke to him just after Christmas of 2005 apparantly..........very sad that there was NO contact after that

ugh - that makes it worse!

Re: Mummified Body in Hampton Bays Home

Posted by mrswask

Very sad!! Those neighbors should all be ashamed of themselves!!

I wonder how the cops knew about the burst water pipe?

Re: Mummified Body in Hampton Bays Home

Posted by Holly

Posted by LisaW

How weird is it that his electricity was still on?

not only his electric---HIS TV was on!

Re: Mummified Body in Hampton Bays Home

Posted by Holly

Posted by mrswask

Posted by ValR

The guy had a son which is the REALLY sad part to me........he spoke to him just after Christmas of 2005 apparantly..........very sad that there was NO contact after that

ugh - that makes it worse!

uugh, even sadder!

Re: Mummified Body in Hampton Bays Home

I love the neighbors had noticed that there was mail piling up...yeah for a whole year dumb a$$

Its so sad that this man had no family and no one who cared about him...so sad to die like that

Re: Mummified Body in Hampton Bays Home

OMG that is CRAZY!!!!! how can this be??

Re: Mummified Body in Hampton Bays Home

Posted by SweetestOfPeas

OMG that is CRAZY!!!!! how can this be??

Re: Mummified Body in Hampton Bays Home

It's so sad and very bizarre! I mean, LIPA let the house get electricity for over a year with out paying? Or Keyspan? AND he had a son?? Come on! It's just not right!

Re: Mummified Body in Hampton Bays Home

that is so sad, but how the heck did his tv stay on for a whole year?

Re: Mummified Body in Hampton Bays Home

this story made CNN headlines!