Dead in his apartment for 15 years: the sad story of a Valencia resident

BarcelonaNeighbors hadn't heard from him for years. Some believed he had ended up in a nursing home, others simply that he had moved to another place. What no one expected was that he was dead inside his apartment. Antonio F.'s body was found this Sunday in Valencia, and the police confirmed that the man had been dead in his home for "quite a few years," at least fifteen, according to neighbors' testimony collected by the diary Levante-EMV. The main hypothesis is that he died of natural causes.

The rains of the last few days led to the discovery on the top floor of a building on Luis Fenollet Street, in the Fontsanta neighborhood. Water flooded the terrace and began to seep into the apartments, starting with the dead man's and continuing to the rest. The water was black and smelly, and this alarmed the neighbors. When the firefighters arrived, according to several media reports, they found the man's skeleton, fully clothed, on the bedroom floor. Witnesses said the apartment was filled with dirt and pigeons.

Antonio F. was born in 1939, so he died around the age of 71. He had an ex-wife and two children, but they hadn't had any contact with him for a long time, according to Levante-EMV. The man accumulated a debt to the community of 11,000 euros. However, according to this publication, following a lawsuit by the property manager, his accounts were seized, and both the debt and subsequent payments were covered by his retirement pension, which, curiously, he continued to collect. "As long as you pay, no one cares if you're alive," laments one of the neighbors interviewed.

National Police sources have confirmed to Efe that the homicide unit has ruled out any hypothesis of violent or homicidal death, leaving the investigation in the hands of the district police station. Antonio F.'s body, which is about to be autopsied, was taken away this Sunday in two bags. One of his two sons has testified in the last few hours. A police source cited by The Country explains that the deceased man had not been in contact with anyone for 35 years.