A childhood friend who went to check on Kevin Hile, 42, because they’d not spoken for several weeks found his body in the living room of the home.
“I was knocking on the door and did not get an answer,” Shawn Duchesne said Monday. “I looked in the window and saw my friend’s feet and legs sticking out from his sofa bed.”
Duchesne immediately called 911. Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office investigators found several weeks of unopened mail in the mail box, and the house was unkempt.
“We noticed there was no electricity inside the home,” said Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office Capt. Jeremy Roy. “The water was also shut off.”
Some of Hile’s neighbors saw that the yard and house were in disarray, but they did not think anything was wrong because he often kept to himself and they rarely saw him.
“I figured he might have just left,” said neighbor John Williams. “This is just a rough situation.”
Residents said they feel guilty about what happened to Hile because none of them thought to check on him. Barbara Buell, who has lived on Stafford Avenue since 1967 and knew Hile when he was a child, said this happened because people don’t communicate on her street like they used to.
“I feel awful about it,” said Buell. “Someone in the neighborhood should have known about it.”
It is rare for a person to die and go unnoticed for as long as Hile did, Roy said.
He wants the public to become more aware of what is happening in their neighborhoods to prevent these types of incidents.
“Get to know your neighbors,” said Roy. “If you notice something isn’t right give us a call.”
Update@1:15 p.m. (April 20):
Neighbors said Monday they didn’t notice something was wrong because Kevin Hile often kept to himself. When they saw the house did not have any power they assumed he had moved.
First take:
The Montgomery County Coroner’s Office is working to notify family of a man whose body was found in a Harrison Twp. home on Saturday.
The 42-year-old man’s body was found during a welfare check at a house on Stafford Avenue, according to the coroner’s office.
The house did not have heat, electricity or water service, according to the coroner’s office.
A cause of death has not been determined. The body was found in an advanced state of decomposition, indicating the death happened several weeks earlier, according to the coroner’s office.
The man’s identity has not been released pending notification of next of kin.