Brooklyn Woman Found Living With Mother's Bones

Chava Stirn, 28, discovered living in trash-packed apartment with remains
By Shelley Hazen,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 9, 2014 11:25 AM CDT
Brooklyn Woman Found Living With Mother's Bones
   (Shutterstock)

Skeletal remains were found in a Brooklyn apartment on Monday, and the New York Post today reports that, as suspected, a 28-year-old woman found in the apartment had been living with her dead mother's bones. Cops came upon the scene after the apartment building’s superintendent, who was investigating a leak coming through the lobby ceiling, found himself unable to fully open the apartment door, though he saw Chava Stirn sitting in the kitchen amid waist-high trash. Police spent two hours getting a reportedly volatile Stirn out of the apartment. She was sent to the hospital and will have a psych evaluation; sources had told WABC both mother and daughter suffered from psychological problems.

But at that point, police didn’t know the remains of Susie Rosenthal—her mother—were also inside, the New York Daily News reports. Stirn’s aunt routinely stops by to drop off food outside the door (never entering), and when she encountered authorities, she posed a question: "She asked who was taken into the hospital and said there should be one more woman living there," says a rep for a Jewish burial service. Cops started looking, and found Rosenthal's remains, which a police source tells the Daily News look "well over a year decomposed." Among the most disturbing details: The Post notes Stirn's bed was covered in paper, and she may have slept in a chair in the kitchen next to her mother's remains, which sat on a bed of trash bags. As for the remains, a neighbor says "there was nothing to take out for burial, just bones. Roaches, rats, mice ... she was eaten up." (More Brooklyn stories.)

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