After Frieberger couldn’t breathe, she persuaded Holdcraft to call 911 on Oct. 2. The women’s home in the 600 block of Wilson Creek Road didn’t look like much was amiss from the outside. “You never would know. There was just a little clutter on the porch,” Negangard said.

But when medics and police arrived, the pungent, distinctive odor of rotting human flesh assaulted their senses, along with the odor of human waste and other detritus.

Medics had trouble making their way through the mess, and Freiberger’s flesh was stuck to her chair, Negangard said, so they had to resort to breaking a window so they could hoist Frieberger –and the chair – outside.