In a scene cut right out of the pages of R.L. Stine's Goosebumps, an Ohio boy stumbled on a mummified corpse hanging inside a home once thought to be abandoned.
The 12-year-old boy made his way inside the dusty house in Dayton on Sunday, KFOR reports. Inside a closet, the body of 53-year-old Edward Brunton hung from a belt.
Authorities say the corpse had been there for five years.
The closet shielded Brunton's body from decomposition, as well as animals and insects, according to CNN.
"Because of the location where he was found, it was relatively protected, sunlight protected, temperature protected and low humidity," coroner Kent Harshbarger told CNN affiliate WDTN.
The coroner's office believes it's a suicide by hanging, but police are still investigating. Brunton bought the house in 2009, and reportedly died shortly after that -- but nobody in the community knew. Overgrowth had taken over the home, taxes had never been paid and nobody ever saw anyone entering or leaving.
Meanwhile, the adventurous boy's mother thinks he could be scarred for life.
"When he first came across it, he thought it was a dummy, or a mannequin or something," Michelle McGrath told KFOR. "My son came home and said that he had gone into an abandoned house and he found a body. "
The find comes just three months after a mummified corpse was found inside a sport utility vehicle in a Detroit garage. Neighbors thought the woman had moved out of her home three years ago.
