Woman Preparing House for Renters Finds Dead Ex-Husband Under Stairs

A woman in Anchorage, Alaska got the shock of her life when she discovered that her ex-husband, who had been declared missing a year prior, was actually underneath the staircase inside their home — dead. The man, 37-year-old Samuel Ephram McAlpine, had been declared missing after he disappeared following a date. At the time of the disappearance, McAlpine and his wife were in the midst of a divorce and not living together.

The home they had previously lived in together had been rented out to tenants. But before the tenants moved in, McAlpine apparently decided to return to the home and tuck into a crawlspace underneath the staircase. There, he died from what may have been drug-related causes.

For whatever reason, the tenants failed to notice or smell that they were living with a dead man for a year. It's possible the tenants were in the military, as were the wife and missing man, and were deployed for much of the time.

However, when they moved out, McAlpine's ex-wife came over to prepare the home for the new renters. She's the one who detected a "foul smell" and began looking around, where she found her ex in the storage space underneath the stairs.

Police do not suspect foul play — no pun intended.

How awful for the poor ex-wife having to discover that. What a gruesome shock that must have been! And, of course, the poor man. What would drive him to crawl into the little storage space under the stairs?

Have you ever found anything unexpected in a rental?

Image via Joanna Bourne/Flickr