A young Dayton, Ohio boy made a grisly discovery after deciding to explore an old residence long thought to be abandoned on the 200 block of South Harbine Street on Sunday.

The 12-year-old boy went into the home and was looking through the house when he went into the bedroom and looked into the closet. Inside, he found what he first thought to be a dummy. But, he had in fact found the mummified remains of a man hanging by his neck by a belt.

The boy went home and reported the discovery to his mother, who went to the house to investigate. Once inside the room, she was able to smell decomposition and found that it was in fact the mummified remains of a man in the closet.

Investigators believe that the man, who was identified by his brother as 53-year-old Edward Brunton, had bought the home in 2009 shortly before he apparently took his own life.

County Coroner Kent Harshbarger reported that the conditions in the closed closet kept the body in a mummified state for five years, with no sunlight, the right temperature and no access for insects and animals.

Many of the neighbors did not even know the the house had been purchased by Brunton and had never seen anyone coming and going from the property. Because he had been estranged from family and any friends, the man was never reported missing by anyone.

Even neighbors living across the street from the home, that was overgrown,  never knew that there had ever been living at the residence. Those neighbors said that someone years ago had mentioned a smell coming from the home , but it was discounted as an animal that had crawled under the shed and died at that time.

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