Gordon Stewart, 74, was found dead in his Buckinghamshire, England home inside a maze of tunnels he had burrowed through the garbage that packed his property. The hoarder apparently died of dehydration. (For a fascinating book about the world’s most famous hoarders, the Collyer brothers, I highly recommend Franz Lidz’s Ghosty Men.) From The Telegraph:
The Thames Valley Police Specialist Search and Recovery team, who usually deals with underwater rescues or explorations of contaminated sites, used their cutting-edge equipment to navigate their way through the rubbish, locating his body in one the tunnels. The highly-trained team carry breathing apparatus, gas detectors, analysers and remote cameras, and wear protective clothing….
One neighbour, who asked not to be named, said: “He was slightly eccentric, but very clever. He was just a collector. He came home with a load of cardboard boxes and lived in his own world.”
“Pensioner ‘entomed in labyrinth of tunnels carved into rubbish’” (Thanks, Robert Pescovitz!)