Posted on 11/19/2003 12:21:48 AM PST by nickcarraway
Widow was dead for 8 years, police believe Caregiver's demeanour was aloof, strange
WELLAND, Ont.—Public documents say a woman whose years-old corpse was found in a sealed bedroom Friday is alive and well and paying her taxes.
Susan Vasil's body was discovered by police lying in a main-floor bedroom of her Wallace Ave. S. home. Niagara police believe she has been dead for at least eight years.
Her name is on the City of Welland tax rolls for 2003 as owner of the home, which is assessed at $80,000 with taxes of more than $1,600, which were not in arrears.
She bought the home with her husband, Joseph, in 1951 for $6,900. Welland city directories show her husband had lived at the house with her from 1951 to 1985 and worked at Union Carbide for several years and for a company called Electro Met.
The 2000 municipal voters list shows her as the only eligible voter living in the house. The woman who lived in the house, 55-year-old Katerina Compel, moved in to care for Vasil at some point.
Police found the elderly pensioner's remains after a Mississauga relative called them Friday to check on Vasil.
The woman hadn't seen Vasil since 1995.
Compel greeted police at the door when they arrived. She has been charged with failing to provide the necessities of life in her capacity as Vasil's caregiver and neglecting to perform her duties with respect to the burial of her body or remains. The second charge carries a maximum penalty of five years in jail.
Compel appeared in court in St. Catharines yesterday for the start of her bail hearing. She has been remanded in custody at the Vanier Institute for Women in Brampton and will return for the resumption of her bail hearing on Thursday. The justice of the peace has ordered a ban on reporting about the proceedings.
The bizarre case has shocked and intrigued the community. Cars slow down as they pass the house, still marked off by yellow tape and guarded around-the-clock by police.
A 40-year-old man, who grew up on the street and didn't want his name used, said he didn't remember any children ever living at the house. Shortly after moving in, the former neighbour said Compel started making major renovations to the modest dwelling and covered the exterior with angel stone. She also excavated a portion of the basement.
Neighbours noticed her unusual behaviour. She didn't have a lawn mower and would often pluck the grass off her lawn with her hands or cut it with scissors. One neighbour said she would lie on the driveway in a kind of meditative state, looking up at the sky.
None of the immediate neighbours, some of whom have been on the street for more than five years, could remember seeing anybody at the house except Compel. "She was always there (by herself). I never saw a car," said neighbour Deanna Houser. "She didn't seem interested in talking."
8 years???
Yeah, the Crown does have historical problems with taxation without representation. lol
MODERATOR - QUICK! SNUFF THIS! SOME OF OUR DEMOCRATS CAN READ!!! /sarcasm
Hell, this is taxation without respiration!
What life?
Apparently for them it is
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