A woman who lived next to her brother’s decomposing corpse for up to five years was once a career-driven retail executive who had a strict religious upbringing.
Daily Mail Australia can reveal exclusive details about the life of the elderly woman at the center of the Victorian ‘house of horrors’ that shocked Australia this week.
The horrific secret was revealed on Monday when the vision emerged of the woman, known only as Marie, being arrested outside the rat-infested and rubbish-strewn public housing complex in Newtown, in Geelong, south-west of Melbourne.
Police made the gruesome discovery of her late brother Robert’s body in late December 2022 after visiting the home on an unrelated matter.
Police broke a glass door panel to gain entry before officers in biohazard suits had to wade through floor-to-ceiling rubbish, rats, dead possums and human feces to reach the skeletal remains of Robert, who had not been seen since 2017.
The house was so full of hoarded things that Marie had been sleeping in a small ‘nest’ of bedding among the rubbish.
Now a neighbor who took pity on Marie and welcomed the older woman into her home has given Daily Mail Australia an exclusive look into her background.
Belinda Holt said Marie, who is now about 74 years old, became homeless after police fenced off her public housing and ended up sleeping in a park.
Daily Mail Australia can reveal exclusive details about the life of the elderly woman known only as Marie (pictured) at the center of the Victorian ‘house of horrors’ that has shocked Australia
In late December 2022, police in biohazard suits were forced to wade through floor-to-ceiling trash, rats, dead possums and human feces to reach the skeletal remains of Marie’s brother Robert, who had not been seen since 2017.
Mrs Holt took Marie in just before New Year’s Eve 2022 and said she enjoyed ‘watching the fireworks on my big screen TV’ and revealed part of her life story.
She said Marie and her brother Robert came from an Italian-Australian family who had emigrated in the 1920s and settled in Geelong, where they raised the siblings in a strict Roman Catholic family.
Ms Holt said Marie remembered wearing “a nice dress” to attend social dances as a teenager, but never married or had children.
Instead, she focused on her career and got a job at retailer Myer, where she worked her way up to an administrator role.
Devastated by the death of her grandparents, Marie began to suffer from obsessive-compulsive disorder and other mental health problems, and both she and Robert moved into social housing in Russell Street, Newtown.
After quitting her job, Marie continued working for people in her suburb and cleaning up the neighborhood streets.
Ms Holt said Marie told her: ‘It’s a working planet, that’s what you do.’
Robert’s remains – still wearing a cap – were found in the house (above) among the floor-to-ceiling rubbish, rats, dead possums and human feces
‘Marie’ was known as a hoarder, who filled her house with rubbish. She was arrested on December 29, 2022 on an unrelated matter
“She would clean out people’s trash cans and get the gum nuts out of people’s gutters and make some money doing it, $20 here and there,” Ms. Holt said.
“I’ve met (Robert) a few times. He was a hermit. They were both traumatized people.’
The siblings had lived in the house without a telephone and without electricity part of the time.
Mrs Holt said Marie was ‘very fit’ for her age but suffered from ‘detachment disorder’ – meaning she could co-exist with her late brother’s body in the house.
However, Marie rejected suggestions that Marie ‘slept next to his corpse’.
“That’s nonsense,” she said, adding that she had seen the “nest” of bedding that made up Marie’s bed.
In the ‘house of horrors’ that has now been cleared of the mountains of rubbish, rats and dead possums between which Marie slept in a ‘nest’ of bedding
The property is currently boarded up, has been forensically cleaned and will be renovated in the future to accommodate a new tenant
After police arrested Marie on December 29, 2022 on an unrelated matter, they released her to Geelong Hospital. She walked home and discovered she couldn’t enter her house.
After police arrested Marie on December 29, 2022, on an unrelated matter, they took her to Geelong Hospital and she walked home to find she could not enter her home.
Ms Holt said police had mishandled a ‘mental health’ case and Marie was effectively left on the street until she took the elderly woman in, clothed her and took her to Centrelink.
‘She did not have a Medicare card and did not receive an old-age pension. I pulled some strings and agencies got her shelter pretty quickly, first in a motel. She’s in a new place now,” Ms Holt said.
Ms Holt, who was interviewed by the Victorian coroner’s office about Robert’s death, said the house had been cleaned and was being renovated to accommodate a new tenant.