Case study: Delmar Secor: He shriveled up and died as neighbor watchedReport by Dean Mosiman (Wisconsin State Journal)
DE PERE — So much happened behind the weathered white pillars and clapboard siding of Delmar Secor's lifelong home.
And not nearly enough.
At his death, Secor, 89, lay face down on a floor in his two-story house set amid grand homes in a National Historic District blocks from the Fox River in this city of 23,000 just south of Green Bay.
During his life, he had been salutatorian of De Pere High School's class of 1931, a World War II veteran and the owner of two movie theaters in town.
When he died, he weighed 89 pounds, his dehydrated and malnourished body resembling an Auschwitz victim.
The home was so filled with debris, garbage and human waste that, when later inspected, it was deemed unfit for human habitation.
There were people who knew Secor as an eccentric recluse.
No one saw the truth, and no one managed to save him.
Some believed Secor was being cared for by his longtime next-door-neighbor,
Dean Krause, a businessman and De Pere city councilman for 20 years.
Krause, who saw Secor regularly, found his lifeless body just after midnight on April 26, 2001. A few months earlier, Secor had given Krause power of attorney over his affairs and changed his will to make Krause his sole heir.
Abridged Article SOURCE
When he died, he weighed 89 pounds, his dehydrated and malnourished body resembling an Auschwitz victim.
The home was so filled with debris, garbage and human waste that, when later inspected, it was deemed unfit for human habitation.
There were people who knew Secor as an eccentric recluse.
No one saw the truth, and no one managed to save him.
Some believed Secor was being cared for by his longtime next-door-neighbor,
Dean Krause, a businessman and De Pere city councilman for 20 years.Krause, who saw Secor regularly, found his lifeless body just after midnight on April 26, 2001. A few months earlier, Secor had given Krause power of attorney over his affairs and changed his will to make Krause his sole heir.
Abridged Article SOURCE
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The Wisconsin State Journal and Dean Mosiman should be congratulated on doing a series of reports and case studies on Elder Abuse. The series, the most comprehensive coverage to date by a newspaper, provided an excellent range of reports and resources.
In this day and age, where most media shun reports on anything that are Not considered "sexy" or "headline grabbers", the WSJ has made a brave move.
The Wisconsin State Journal and Dean Mosiman should be congratulated on doing a series of reports and case studies on Elder Abuse. The series, the most comprehensive coverage to date by a newspaper, provided an excellent range of reports and resources.
In this day and age, where most media shun reports on anything that are Not considered "sexy" or "headline grabbers", the WSJ has made a brave move.
Well Done! Let us see if others will follow their excellent lead.
(Pls. click on the first image to go to the WSJ Multimedia Page. Excellent coverage.)
(Pls. click on the first image to go to the WSJ Multimedia Page. Excellent coverage.)
1 comment:
Mr. Secor was my eccentric, but always appreciated, neighbor. Dean Krause lived in the house in between ours. I saw him every day, though spoke to him rarely. I knew he was a kind man when he came to my door, concerned that my cat was outside.
On Halloween, no kids would go to his door besides a select few, including us. His was the best house to visit--the lack of visitors meant he would give the oh-so-coveted full-sized candy bars our to those who ventured to the house with tin foil windows.
I wish our family had known what was going on with Mr. Secor and Mr. Krause, and could have expressed alarm to the proper authorities, or offered our own services. I remember the day the police came to our door and asked when we had last seen him, but until finding this article (because he was on my mind, for some odd reason) never knew the absolutely horrific circumstances surrounding his death.
About two years after he passed, my cat went missing (different car than the one he had mentioned). Two weeks into his absence, Mr. Krause came to our door and said that our cat was in Secor's house. My father stood in the darkness of Secor's basement and called to the cat for what seemed like hours. We eventually got him back, but he passed from a kidney infection a few months later. He hadn't been the same since getting trapped in the Secor house, and my dad always thought he had seen something in that house that he would never forget.
Anyway, thank you for illuminating the spotlight on this horrible tragedy. For us neighborhood kids, Mr. Secor will never be forgotten. He was a welcome staple of our historic neighborhood, and my childhood, and I am horrified at the abuse he suffered in such close proximity to my own childhood memories by my soulless and despicable former neighbor.
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