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[NightmarePatrol]

In case nobody saw this yet, it came off the AP wire. I was pretty dumbfounded when I read this.

LAS VEGAS — A four-month search for a missing Las Vegas woman came to a ghastly end this week when her husband found her corpse in their home amid a labyrinth of squalor that had been impassable even to search dogs.

Bill James apparently had no idea that the body of his pack-rat wife, Billie Jean, was under the same roof as he helped police scour the home and the Nevada desert for any sign of her. Then he spotted the feet of the body poking out of a floor-to-ceiling pile of junk Wednesday, revealing in shocking detail the woman's penchant for hoarding.

Police say they searched the home several times — even using dogs from a unit that helped locate bodies at ground zero after Sept. 11 and Hurricane Katrina. But they were unable to find the body of amid the piles of clothes, knickknacks, trash and other junk.

"For our dogs to go through that house and not find something should be indicative of the tremendous environmental challenges they faced," police spokesman Bill Cassell said.

Clark County Coroner's office spokeswoman Jessica Coloma said it could take weeks to determine when and how the 67-year-old woman died. The husband has been cooperative throughout the investigation and quickly notified police of his discovery.

One thing is not in doubt about the case: Billie Jean James loved to hoard. It's a behavior that has received new attention this year with two popular reality TV shows — "Hoarding: Buried Alive" and "Hoarders" — that chronicle the lives of people who live in absolute squalor because they cannot bring themselves to throw anything away.

A similar situation could be seen at the James' home in a desert-front cul-de-sac near the Las Vegas Strip. In the driveway sits two huge trash bins that require industrial-sized trucks to haul them away. The front patio is filled with knickknacks including old chairs, smaller trash bins and a 10-foot basketball hoop.

Inside, Cassell said James' piles of clutter left just small pathways to walk and strong odors that hindered their search — generated by animals, decomposing garbage, food, clothes and other stuff.

"If there had been any indication that there was a remote possibility that somebody was back underneath that stuff we would have taken the appropriate action," Cassell said.

Sari Connolly, who walked dogs with James and her husband daily at a nearby park with a group of friends, said the woman bought things at thrift stores each day and accumulated them in the house.

"She became this hoarder person and she wouldn't let anyone come in her house," Connolly said.

Connolly said one of Billie Jean James' closest friends once asked to use the bathroom at the home after a camping trip, but James wouldn't let her in.

"It sounds like it was beyond control," said Connolly, who had a big banner made to help find James during the search.

Approached at the home Thursday, Bill James declined to speak with an Associated Press reporter.

Cassell said initial reports had James last seen walking away from the house in late April. He said along with the dogs, police visited the house several times and searched the desert with a helicopter equipped with infrared detection.

Friends and family searched the nearby desert several times on foot, horseback and with all-terrain vehicles. They created a Facebook page to help coordinate efforts, while the family offered a $10,000 reward in hopes of finding a woman described as a peace activist who to loved hiking, camping and the arts.

Nine digital billboards publicized her search amid the bright lights of Las Vegas to draw attention the search, and Connolly said they hired someone to hold a banner in a spot near the home where a woman reported possibly seeing James.

"This was certainly something that was not glossed over," Cassell said. "We did everything that we could."

But Connolly said she and friends think police may have botched the search.

"I'm trying to figure out how a body couldn't smell so bad — that's what everyone's saying," she said. "It's the million-dollar question right now."

The case is not completely surprising given the fact that 2 to 5 percent of Americans are chronic hoarders, said Dr. David Tolin, a hoarding expert from Hartford Hospital who co-wrote "Buried in Treasures" to help people who compulsively collect things.

"Every year, there's at least a few deaths that can be attributed to hoarding," he said.

[Jayhawk]

It's obvious they just needed a bigger place for their stuff.

[Mr. Ripley]

Familiar story.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collyer_brothers

[Amidala]

Nevada? A desert? She dried out fast...

[Zipper]

I hate clutter, and am very clean despite three dogs, ....and Mr. Zip. 
 
 
I just had my carpets cleaned on Friday. Ahhhh. So nice!
 
Earlier in the year I hired two Mennonite gals to help me wash my walls and spring clean. The three of us worked together for two days to "detail" the house. Now, with the carpets cleaned, it's like brand new again!
 
My car.... well that's next. We live on a dirt road so it's always dusty and difficult to keep clean.
 
 
 

[CindyLouWho]

I bought a darker tan/light brown/goldish (take your pick) with my last vehicle purchase....it always looks clean!

[lifefeedsonlife]

I've worked with some folks that have this problem. Sad . . . .

[NightmarePatrol]

That has to be one messed up condition to have. I can't even imagine not bringing myself to not throwing out anything.

[Amidala]

I want to throw out everything.. alas, Anakin is like a Mr. Zip....   < love the roll around gif...> But I am slowly making progress!! 

[Puffin]

The lady had terminal OCD!

[lifefeedsonlife]

Some of the houses I've been in were at the beginnings of it - some, were very very very full of things. Enough so - that entire rooms were blocked off. When asked what was saved in there, the answer is - "I'm not sure."

"Do you think we ought to look around and see whether we shoudl do something else with it?"

"No - it's fine as it is."

[Kimmi]

That hoarding show was the reason I cleaned out my junk room this winter.  I was stuck at home on snow days and watched it back to back.  It made me a little paranoid that I was heading in that direction!!

[NightmarePatrol]

The mother of one a  guy I used to work with was a hoarder. Specifically newpapers and periodicals. They were stacked nearly ceiling high throughout the house. At some point she fell asleep in bed with a cigarette. From what the firemen said she would have been able get out easily, but when the paper caught fire all the pathways simply collapsed. The sad thing is that was two days before Christmas.

[Amidala]

Oh how tragic!

[TiFeMb]

I've worked with some folks that have this problem. Sad . . . .

I worked with a girl who was a hoarder...she weighed at LEAST 350, and ate at her desk constantly. Stuff would just pile up until management would threaten her and she would have to clean up her area...but not completely. Her apt...oh my. She was thrown out of one apt because of the mess, so she had a moving company come in, box everything as is and moved it to a bigger apt. She only had a sliver of the living room for her computer and mattress, the 2 bedrooms and most of the apt were stacked floor to ceiling with boxes and accumulated stuff.
Sadly, management was more concerned with making her an example than in helping her get better, so she was fired on trumped up charges and escorted off the premises by security. A lot of programmers snickered and made fun...I left a few months later or I would have had more to say.
I am still in touch with her, she is really normal except for the hoarding. Not much different than an alcoholic which her co workers were...but that was accepted.