Tenant died, been facing modern challenges with attempting to contact next of kin
It’s not something that’s happened a lot in the 22 years I’ve been managing houses (one of my infinity jobs). I’ve only lost a tenant once before, but this was the first time discovering a tenant had passed at an apartment. She’d been a tenant since 2007 and alarms were raised yesterday and I had a wellness check called in after attempting to get in touch with her failed (neighbor contacted me about concerns earlier in the day).
TL;DR – Things were overlooked. Oh so this is why not much has been posted last couple of days.
Things such as packages that were week+ old, animals not making noise when you knocked, car in driveway, phone going straight to voicemail, few other things that really seemed odd for someone who’d been a tenant for the past 16 or so years.
I arrived at the house a few minutes after the police did and found the tenant had replaced the front door lock with a fancy new keypad that didn’t work with my keys… oof… luckily the back door worked. I handed the key off to the police and walked to the parking lot. I still haven’t seen the interior of the place.
She’d died, I suspect less than a week ago (side story involving note from pest control saying tenant was too sick for inspection/treatment that gave us a date.) But nobody had checked on her while she was sick that we know of. If they did they’d left packages on the front steps for the past week. On the porch was food delivery from several days back, looked like more than a week, some Amazon packages, and evidence that a person had been planning on continuing.
I really don’t know all the details except that nobody we’ve talked to has any current contact information for her next of kin / parents / etc. She’d filled out an emergency contact sheet back in 2007 and I had an email with her daughter’s name from 2008… thus began the internet stalking. Called and texted the decade old emergency contact numbers, no good, started FB stalking and located names that were close to what I had. Daughter had maybe gotten married and there are two profiles with her names? Son I’m going by fifth hand internet information at this point that was his name, but he was a friend on Facebook.
Neighbor went to the place she rented space as an independent contractor but they had no contact info, just the name of her father… possibly.
Hit everyone we think was a kid up on Facebook Messenger as that’s the only contact I have… and waited… and waited… and waited… and still waiting.
Had a friend attempt one of those people search things she’d paid for a while back and it just kept returning garbage… interesting garbage, but garbage. Another friend called a number that came up and left a message at an unmarked voicemail box. Whether it’s the right number or not, no idea as people don’t answer and people don’t check voicemail.
Sometime in the last decade the emergency contact numbers I was given were disconnected. Very much expect that I’m sitting in people’s “other” folder to never be checked on Facebook. About to raise a small group of people to comment on every friend, friend of friend, and friend of friend of friend of the profiles I think the kids have in an attempt to get an answer as to whether I have the right people.
Thinking about death, maybe that’s a bit too deep here, but think about making a plan so that if someone found you passed out on the ground and didn’t have access to everything they would at least be able to contact one person. I’ve got an email asking all the tenants to get me the contact information or put it in an envelope and stick it on the top of their fridge.
I believe I’m entering the place tomorrow to look for a phone, which once powered up will be locked but *might* have an emergency contact. Waiting on an officer to give me a call back at the moment. There was no getting in there discovery day as CSI and the coroner and the fire department and animal control all had their parts to do and random guy with keys and a desire to reach people who cared about her were not priority.
One of her animals was dead. I didn’t ask details. There was a bit too much going on.
Modern stalking has me and four other people attempting how to get in touch with these kids (kid is relative term) – one in another state and one who evidently lives about six miles away.
It’s.. been odd… seriously though, make a list of some sort of people to contact if you’re found deceased or incapacitated in your apartment. I thought I’d covered that base by getting emergency contact information, but never expected a tenant to stay 15 more years to the point names and numbers had changed.
