Hoarder found buried in trash died of heart disease
BY ROSEMARY SOBOL Staff Reporter
The body of 80-year-old, Cecylia Opilka, whom neighbors said had not been seen in several months was found badly decomposed under piles of debris in her West Rogers Park home in what police are calling a hoarding situation. Photographed in the 2000 Block of West Avenue on Friday, April 1, 2011 in Chicago. | Richard A. Chapmnan~Sun-Times
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An elderly Far North Side woman whose badly decomposed body was found under piles of debris Thursday died from heart disease months before, authorities said.
Neighbors last saw Cecylia Opika, 80, in December when she most likely died in the three-story town home filled with garbage, police said Friday.
Officers described Opika and her 43-year-old live-in son as “hoarders.”
Ronald Opika was arrested on a misdemeanor drug charge when he tried to produce identification for police and a bag of marijuana allegedly fell out.
He wasn’t charged for not reporting his mother’s death because he is mentally challenged, police said.
Neighbors hadn’t seen Cecylia Opika in “a while” and asked police to conduct a well-being check. Police found her body Thursday afternoon.
Opika, of the 2000 block of West Morse, died of heart disease and her death was ruled natural, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office.
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