Elderly hoarders were trapped for weeks in mound of debris

City building inspector Lauren Mosley photographs the kitchen at a home in the 1500 block of East 69th Street where an elderly couple were found buried under mounds of trash.

An elderly couple who authorities described as hoarders were found buried alive under mounds of trash in their South Side two-flat Monday night and may have been there for as long as three weeks, authorities said this morning.

"It (the residence) was packed from floor to ceiling," said Police Lt. Dale Kingsley.

Police conducting a well-being check at the request of a neighbor about 6:30 p.m. in the 1500 block of East 69th Street in the Grand Crossing neighborhood detected an overpowering odor and called the Fire Department to make a forced entry, police said.

A fire official on the scene said the 75-year-old woman had injuries that resembled rat bites. Both she and her 76-year-old husband were taken to Jackson Park Hospital in critical condition, but a nurse there said this morning their conditions were improved, although they still were in intensive care.

The stench was so overpowering that fire personnel had to don hazardous material suits to deal with the debris.

The couple had not been heard from in three weeks, said Fire Department spokesman Kevin MacGregor. The woman may have fallen through the debris first and become trapped. When her husband tried to come to her aid, he apparently became trapped as well.

The couple apparently were the only residents in the building.

"It just brought me to tears to see the condition they were found in," said next-door neighbor Reola Valentine, 59, who called 311 about 4 p.m. Monday to ask for the well-being check. She said she didn't know the couple but had not seen the man mowing his lawn for quite some time and saw that his gray truck parked outside was accumulating parking tickets.

Over the last few weeks, she said, various people came to their door and when their knocking went unanswered frequently came to her to ask if she knew anything.

Hattie Fields, 83, who lives next door on the other side, said someone she believed was a Census worker was looking for them Monday and came to her to inquire where they were when she couldn't get in. The worker had also noticed that the mail outside the couple's home had accumulated, Fields said.

She said someone called 911 afterwards and firefighters arrived at the couple's residence. The couple was carried by firefighters out the back.

Fields, who has lived in her home since 1965, said the couple had lived in their residence, a two-story apartment building, for more than 15 years. But she said it has been a number of years since she has spoken with them.

"They didn't communicate with anybody," Fields said.

Fields said as far as she knows, the victims are the only people living in the building as of Monday. Other people had lived there within the last five years, though, she said.

"I thought it was an abandoned building actually," said another neighbor, Cleopatra Ingram, who said she has lived in the neighborhood for a year. "Someone should have checked on them. You'd walk past and there was no one there at all."