Sister reportedly left man's body in home for 4 years

Cicero death stirs mystery
Sister reportedly left man's body in home for 4 years

By Rick Hepp
Tribune staff reporter
Published May 15, 2002

Authorities said a Cicero woman caring for her disabled 67-year-old brother wrapped him in plastic and blankets and left his body in a bedroom after he died four years ago, keeping the death a secret so she could collect his Social Security checks.

Monday evening, police found the near-skeletal remains of James Parra, still dressed in the clothes he was wearing when he died, in the front bedroom of the sister's home in the 1300 block of South 49th Court, said the Cook County medical examiner's office.

An attorney representing Parra's 58-year-old sister said he called Cicero police after her relatives contacted him. The woman, a widow who had been caring for her brother for several years before his death, went to her family recently about Parra because she needed help dealing with the remains, said attorney William P. Murphy.

"She is a little eccentric and there are extenuating circumstances," said Murphy, adding that the sister told him Parra died of natural causes. "She kept him one day [after his death] and all of a sudden it was four years later. It's been enough for a while and she just didn't know what to do."

An autopsy was performed Tuesday, but a finding on the cause and time of death was withheld pending further studies by the medical examiner's office and a police investigation.

When police arrived at the single-story house, the sister met them outside and signed a warrant allowing them to search her home, a medical examiner's report said. Officers found the body wrapped in plastic and blankets on the bed, the report said.

Cicero police, who declined to comment, brought the woman in for questioning but released her early Tuesday, Murphy said.

The medical examiner's office has called in Clyde Snow, a noted forensic anthropologist, to examine the remains next Monday and Tuesday. An adjunct professor at the University of Oklahoma, Snow has examined the victims of Chicago serial killer John Wayne Gacy, as well as war crimes victims around the world.

Murphy declined to discuss the details behind the sister's actions after her brother's death. But according to the medical examiner's report, Murphy informed police that the sister never told anyone after Parra died because she needed his Social Security checks to survive.

The Social Security Administration has opened an investigation into the incident, and its inspector general's office in Chicago has been in contact with Cicero police, said spokeswoman Mary Jarrett.

While police tried to unravel the mystery of Parra's death, neighbors said they were stunned to hear of the alleged activities of the woman, who lived in a dilapidated house without running water and a yard cluttered with weathered holiday decorations, stuffed animals and old furniture.

Nestor Govea, 18, who lives across the alley from the home, said Parra's disappearance was just one of those unanswered questions that no one pursued, in part because neighbors rarely spoke with the two.

"It was just a hi-bye relationship," he said. "Just all of a sudden, I didn't see him anymore."

Govea and other neighbors said they would sometimes see the young children of relatives playing in the woman's yard, and they would occasionally chat with her as they passed her house. Neighbors said they knew little about the two and were even unaware of their names.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/showcase/chi-0205150009may15.story?coll=chi-news-hed

 

Dang. That tops my story, for sure.