Harlingen man says he couldn't smell dead wife

July 29, 2007, 12:02AM
Harlingen man says he couldn't smell dead wife

HARLINGEN — A man whose wife's decomposing body was found in a storage room of their home said he thought she had left him.

Eugene Pilouw, who said that diabetes has damaged the nerves in his nose, said he noticed his wife was missing on July 12. Three days later, his daughter found his wife's body in a storage room in the back area of the home.

"I never smelled anything and I still don't smell anything," he said. "I thought she had run away from home again — especially after I noticed an envelope with $250 was missing."

Harlingen police expect to get toxicology test results Monday that will help them determine 50-year-old Alicia Pilouw's cause of death, police spokesman David Osborne said. He said that initial autopsy results were inconclusive.

Her body was in a back area of their home in a storage room filled with household items including large kitchenware, rolls of toilet paper and paper towels, Pilouw said.

"It wasn't a room that was visited on a regular basis," he said.

After he decided to give his cats away because he couldn't take care of them by himself, his daughter went to his home July 15 to pick one up.

"She went to the last storeroom in the back of the house to look for the cat carrier and she found the body," he said.

This reminds of the time last year when an elder's body was found in his home in the Hamptons and he was dead for a year and no one knew about it. Disturbing story.

But it was three days. i don't think they start to smell at that point.