GRUESOME

Man Found Hanged in Closet 8 Months After Going Missing

Richard Maedge’s wife reported him missing in April, and found his body as she searched a hidden closet for Christmas decorations in December.

An Illinois coroner has confirmed that a man reported missing last April only to be found eight months later in a hideaway closet in his own house had committed suicide.

Richard Maedge, 53, disappeared on April 27 last year after phoning his wife, Jennifer, to tell her that he was leaving work early. She got home to find his Dodge Durango parked outside their house in Troy and his keys and wallet inside, but he was nowhere to be seen.

She immediately reported him missing but a police search of the house found nothing, as did a second search after she complained about a bad smell in the building.

On Dec. 11, as she was decorating the Christmas tree, Jennifer Maedge went to look for decorations in a storage area behind a clothes cupboard under a staircase—and found her husband’s body.

“That’s when I discovered him,” she told the St. Louis Dispatch at the time. “He had committed suicide.”

That verdict was confirmed last week by the Madison County Coroner’s Office after toxicology tests and a physical examination of the mummified remains.

Although the family was able to give Maedge a proper funeral, almost eight months after his suicide, the family says the police investigation was half-hearted and shoddy.

“Mistakes were made, and I want answers,” said Maedge’s sister, Marilyn Toliver, after his funeral. “If it means filing a complaint and going all the way to the governor, I will.... I should have been screaming from the beginning, but I was suckered in by the police department saying they were doing their job and looking for him.”

One possible explanation for Maedge’s suicide was that he and Marilyn had been involved in a battle with another sister for guardianship of their dementia-stricken father, who died in August.

Stung by the family’s accusations, Troy Police Chief Brent Shownes issued a statement last week, reported by the Belleville News-Democrat, listing all the steps his force had taken to find the missing man—including no fewer than three searches of the house with specialist officers and cadaver dogs, searches around surrounding areas, and multiple interviews with family members.

Officers investigating Maedge’s disappearance described the house as a “hoarder home,” making their search that much harder.

Another issue appears to have been that although family members, neighbors, and even the mailman, complained of a “sewer-like” or “ammonia-like” smell around the home, it was never that strong—and appeared to disappear entirely after a plumber visited and capped off a sewage pipe in the basement.

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Philippe Naughton

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