A Connecticut homebuyer who picked up a foreclosed house at auction allegedly walked into a nightmare eight days later when three sets of skeletal remains were discovered inside the Burlington property.
Connecticut State Police identified two of the remains as Brian Cash, 22, and his mother, Sally Ann Cash, 54. The third person found inside the home has not yet been named publicly.
The cause of death remains undetermined, and police said the home has not shown signs “of anything suspicious.”
Authorities said the buyer called 911 on June 14, just over a week after purchasing the property “as is” at auction.
“A new homebuyer, who purchased the structure ‘as is’ at a foreclosure auction, discovered skeletal remains of three individuals at the home,” state police said.
The case has drawn attention to a property that appeared to deteriorate in plain sight while its owners vanished from public view.
Paul and Sally Ann Cash bought the house in 2019 with a $385,000 loan, CT Insider reported.
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CT Insider reported that the mortgage went unpaid starting in December 2024, with utilities already shut off for months.
When Connecticut Marshal Grant Carragher went to serve a foreclosure complaint in August 2025, he later said no one could be reached at the home.
The house was so buried behind overgrowth that Carragher said he had trouble finding it at all.
“I had to climb over the balcony to get to the door because the trees were overgrown and I couldn’t get into the pathway,” the marshal said, according to CT Insider.
No one answered when he knocked. Carragher said neighbors described the residents as unseen “in years,” while the property itself looked abandoned for at least a year.
The foreclosure notice ultimately went to a UPS-store post office box in Avon. The repeated notices went unanswered, and no one appeared in court.
Edward Marchion bought the 2002-built home for $525,000 at the June 6 auction, according to court records reviewed by The New York Times.
The property looked neglected, but records obtained by the paper noted an eerie contradiction at the scene.
“While the premises was in an obvious state of neglect,” the court records said, “there were two newly erected signs reading ‘Keep Out’ and ‘Owner Occupied Premises.’ ”
Officials told the paper the Burlington Volunteer Fire Department had responded to the property repeatedly, including three times in winter 2021 and again for an alarm this past May.
The property appeared empty during the more recent response. “Efforts were made by law enforcement to contact the property management company,” Michael J. Boucher of the fire department told the Times in a statement. “Entry was not made into the residence, and fire department units cleared the scene without incident.”
Detectives with the Connecticut State Police Western District Major Crime unit are investigating.
Investigators have stressed that the case appears “isolated” and does not pose “danger to the public at this time.”
In Dallas, another abandoned house allegedly hid a body until a neighbor heard from drug users that someone was inside.
The Dallas case ended with a murder charge against Kendrick Brown, 51, after police found 27-year-old Maria Murray’s remains inside a freezer at a Georgia Avenue home in East Oak Cliff.
According to an affidavit, the May 10 call came from a neighbor who said drug users had been talking about a body inside. The freezer was discovered in the master bedroom.
After the remains were thawed, the Dallas County Medical Examiner’s Office ruled that Murray died from multiple stab wounds, one of them above the eye and into the brain.
Blood was documented on the bedroom walls and carpet. A large military-style knife, wrapped in cloth and a towel, was also found inside a hole in the drywall.
Brown told police he did not know about the room or freezer, but cellphone videos allegedly placed him in the bedroom repeatedly, according to the affidavit.
The videos also allegedly showed he had been romantically involved with Murray. With help from an American Sign Language interpreter, police interviewed a man who lived at the home.
The resident described repeated physical altercations between Brown and Murray and claimed knives had been used in threats.
Three days before police found the body, the witness said, Murray was lying on the bedroom closet floor.
Brown then allegedly yelled and closed the door, and the witness said Murray was never seen by him again.
CBS News reported that the house caught fire within hours of the discovery. Brown is being held in the Dallas County jail on a $250,000 bond.
In Pennsylvania, another property sale led to a decomposing body and charges against the dead woman’s husband.
New owners checking a Timber Lane property in South Londonderry Township, Lebanon County, after a sheriff’s sale led authorities to the body of 66-year-old Sharlene Mikula.
Court documents show Mikula defaulted on the mortgage in April 2023. County records show the property was sold at sheriff’s sale on April 14.
One unidentified neighbor told WGAL the buyers had been checking the property and asking nearby residents about it.
After noticing a foul odor, the new owners asked for a well-being check, the neighbor said.
Inside, authorities found Mikula on a bedroom floor, reportedly in an advanced state of decomposition.
Officers described the odor as death-like and noted flies in the home. Prosecutors accused her husband, Michael Mikula, of leaving the death unreported for more than a month.
In charging documents obtained by WHP-TV, authorities alleged Mikula admitted his wife died about a month earlier and said he used a shovel to move her remains around the house.
WHP-TV reported that Mikula was charged April 17 with neglect of a care-dependent person, abuse of corpse, recklessly endangering another person, obstructing administration of law or other governmental function and tampering with evidence.
