Shock pics of home where hoarder Evelyn Sakash was found MUMMIFIED under trash after neighbor noticed smell
SHOCKING pictures of the home where a hoarder was found mummified under garbage after neighbors noticed a small have been released.
Evelyn Sakash, 66, was found by cops in her New York City home on Tuesday after her sister called police and told them a cleaning crew found her remains.
However, Sakash's next-door neighbor told The Sun that her husband had "noticed a smell" on the run up to the discovery.
The neighbor, who moved to the area in November, said that detectives got in touch with them to ask if they could drill holes in their house to look into Sakash's.
Despite denying the request, detectives told them that if there was a body they would have smelt it a few blocks away.
Sakash's sister Ellen Brown, who was tipped off after not hearing from her sibling in a while, said the designer was a "heavy hoarder" and started hoarding in October last year.
Looking to reconnect with Sakash, Brown came to Queens and hired a cleaning crew to clear out the award winner's home to see if she was inside.
Her fears proved true when the cleaners found Sakash's mummified remains at around 4.15pm, under a massive pile of trash in the kitchen.
"This is just devastating," Brown, 60, told the Daily News. "She had a full life. She was so extraordinarily talented. She was a brilliant mind."
"I don’t want my sister to be remembered like that, like the way she was found."
"I don’t know," she said. "This was clearly in effect for a long time. She sometimes kept people at bay. The headline says ‘Queens hoarder,’ but that’s not who she is."
While the Medical Examiner's office conducts an autopsy into how she passed, investigators believe she was killed by falling debris or was trapped by it and slowly died.
Sakash has worked on productions ranging from Sesame Street and Law and Order to Orange is the New Black and Still Alice, in a career that has spanned over three decades.
She won a Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction/Set Decoration/Scenic Design for her work on Between the Lions in 2003.
According to a neighbor, Sakash fell into a depression after her mom died in April last year.
"She became so much more withdrawn and looked sick," the neighbor said. "I think that’s when she started to pick up more of the hoarding.
"I went into her house years ago and it was normal," the neighbor added.
Most read in News
In a GoFundMe created in January, a friend of Sakash wrote the designer was missing since September 2020.
Read More on The US Sun
After Sakash's discovery, the organizer updated the page to help Sakash's sister pay for funeral costs.
"Please consider making a donation in Evelyn's memory so we can support Ellen and remember her as the kind, loving, and generous friend and sister we live and will miss so," wrote the organizer.