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Badly decomposed body found in home for sale during walkthrough, Ohio cops say

Ohio police say the remains were badly decomposed, and investigators are working to identify them.
Ohio police say the remains were badly decomposed, and investigators are working to identify them. July 2025 © Google 2025

Two people discovered badly decomposed human remains while doing a walkthrough of a home for sale in Ohio, police told news outlets.

The prospective homebuyers went to check out the house at about 10 a.m. Wednesday, Sept. 10, Dayton police told the Dayton Daily News. But upon entering through a back door, the pair was met with human remains, according to police.

The body has been decomposing for some time, police told WDTN, describing the remains as “skeletal.”

Neighbor Donald Arnold said he noticed a foul smell coming from the home in recent weeks but decided it was probably a dead animal and thought nothing of it, WHIO reported. The house has been vacant for quite awhile, Arnold added.

The owner of the house lives in a different county and bought the property through a sheriff’s auction in June, the station reported. The owner said he’s visited the house only once, and while he “noticed bones in the house,” he assumed they were animal bones.

Authorities are investigating, and the remains have been sent to the Montgomery County Coroner’s Office for examination and identification, WDTN reported.

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This story was originally published September 11, 2025 at 10:33 AM with the headline "Badly decomposed body found in home for sale during walkthrough, Ohio cops say."

MW
Mitchell Willetts
The State
Mitchell Willetts is a real-time news reporter covering the central U.S. for McClatchy. He is a University of Oklahoma graduate and outdoors enthusiast living in Texas.
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