Body Found In Trailer In Wise County

COEBURN, Va. – Authorities said Tuesday that a badly decomposed body was found Saturday in a trailer on a rural road between Coeburn and St. Paul in Wise County. 
The resident of the trailer, James Anthony Day, 54, of Crab Orchard Road, likely died of natural causes, authorities said. But his body was so decomposed by the time it was found, the on-scene medical examiner could not tell if there were any suggestions of foul play. So the body was sent Monday to the medical examiner’s office in Roanoke for an autopsy, with preliminary results expected this afternoon.
Wise County Sheriff Ronnie Oakes said his office went to the mobile home when neighbors reported they had not seen their reclusive neighbor take his weekly walk to the grocery store in some time. Deputies knocked on the door, and when no one answered, they pried a window open.
Oakes said the smell was immediately overwhelming.
“It is the worst odor I have ever endured,” Oakes said. “It takes your breath away. Terrible, we had to use masks.”
They found Day’s body on the floor of the hallway between the bedroom and kitchen.
Oakes said the sweltering heat made the body deteriorate faster.
Day’s isolated trailer, a quarter-mile from his nearest neighbor, had no running water and Day used a bucket to haul water to and from the toilet, which worsened the smell.
Authorities said Day had no friends or close family members to check on him, and they do not know how long he had been dead.
Oakes said the man weighed 300 pounds or more, and authorities had to cut off the side of the trailer to get him out.

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