​An Illinois woman found her husband’s mummified body in a closet in her home after he had been missing for nearly eight months, the Independent reported.

Jennifer Madge announced the death of her husband Richard Madge on April 27 last year.

Police then searched the house in Troy, Illinois and investigated his disappearance, but the man was not found until December 11, when Jennifer Madge found his remains in a closet in the house when she went to pick up Christmas decorations.

“I decided to make a Christmas tree and I was looking for a bag of Christmas decorations and then I found it,” the woman told The St Louis Post-Dispatch in December. – He killed himself.

Why was the body not found for almost 8 months

The woman told police she last spoke to her husband the day before she reported him missing. He called her to say he was leaving work early, but when she got home he was gone, but his car was parked at home and his keys and wallet were still there.

When the police searched the house, they found no sign of his whereabouts.

According to Fox 59, Deputy County Coroner Kelly Rogers said police said the home belonged to the intruder.

During the search, law enforcement officers noticed the smell of “filth” in the house. Later, Mrs. Madge called the police again to report the smell in the house. Police searched the house again and found the same odor, but found no sign of the man.

The family contacted a plumber who said the smell was similar to that of sewer gas from decomposing waste, the deputy coroner said.

A plumber put a cap on a sewer pipe in the basement, which seemed to get rid of the smell.

The woman found her husband’s remains on December 11 last year, telling police she had gone to the cupboard in disguise to get Christmas decorations and found her husband’s body inside.

A deputy medical examiner told KTVI that the man’s body is now in a mummified state, which occurs when fluids dry up or are removed.

Rogers added that a body that arrived in this condition might not have much of an odor, which is one of the reasons why Mr. Madge was not found for so long.

According to the conclusion of the forensic medical examination, the man committed suicide.