Topix Underground

Wow man...This is quite a love story...

"...After nearly two years, Elena’s corpse was in poor shape. After dragging her body to his home in a toy wagon, Tanzler set to work securing her limbs to her torso with piano wire. He then replaced her decaying skin with silk that he’d soaked in wax and plaster, fashioned a wig from the hair that had fallen out of her skull, and doused her in disinfectants and perfume to cover the odor of her rotting flesh.

 Tanzler dressed Elena and kept her in his bed, where he slept next to her each night. And though it’s never been verified, there was allegedly evidence that he engaged in necrophilia with her corpse by inserting a tube into her vagina.

For the next seven years, Carl Tanzler lived with the body of Elena de Hoyos. Eventually, rumors started to fly. When someone reportedly spotted Tanzler dancing with the corpse through his open window, Elena’s family decided to confront him.

 Elena’s sister notified the police of her suspicions, which investigators soon confirmed. Tanzler was arrested and charged with “wantonly and maliciously destroying a grave and removing a body without authorization,”

A psychiatric evaluation determined that Tanzler was competent to stand trial despite the fact that he testified he wanted to take Elena “high into the stratosphere, so that radiation from outer space could penetrate [her] tissues and restore life to her somnolent form.”

However, the statute of limitations for Tanzler’s crime had expired by the time he was arrested, and he was soon released. He actually received quite a bit of compassion after the fact, with some women even viewing him as a hopeless — albeit eccentric — romantic.

Tanzler returned home to his wife in Zephyrhills. But his infatuation with Elena wasn’t over yet. He reportedly created a life-sized effigy of the young woman — and lived with it until his death in 1952."