A few years ago I flew into Paris and checked into my hotel room, where I found a strange man sleeping on the bed. Jet lagged and confused, I gave a little shout, waking him. He apologized profusely in French as did his girlfriend, the hotel maid, who’d apparently let him in that morning for a little rest. The following story is kind of similar, except instead of a hotel room, it was the bedroom of a newly purchased $430,000 Los Angeles-area home, and instead of a sleeping Frenchman, it was the rotting corpse of an 84-year-old man.
In late June, a person bought a home in Simi Valley, California. A few weeks later, the buyer explored the house and discovered the body of Salvatore Orefice lying in one of the bedrooms, partially covered. The buyer called the police, who contacted Mary Karacas, 75, the home’s previous owner. As it turns out, Orefice was Karacas’ former boyfriend, who she’d killed sometime after the sale. From the Los Angeles Times:
Karacas, 75, told detectives she and Orefice had gotten into an altercation, he said. At some point during the fight, Karacas told detectives, she shot him. She was arrested on suspicion of murder, [Simi Valley police Cmdr. Roy] Jones said.
Orefice and Karacas had 30 days to move out of the home after selling it, Jones said.
It’s not clear how long Orefice’s body had been inside the home. Karacas was arrested and booked on suspicion of murder, according to KTLA. It’s way too late for this thought, but perhaps she should have hired a better real estate staging company?
