Hoarder in Sydney lived with a mummified body of his victim for 15 years

Bruce Roberts was a hoarder and Snellman's body was only found when cleaners came in to clear the property. Photo / news.com.au

After it was revealed that Shane Snellman, whose mummified body was discovered in the house of a deceased hoarder, was murdered by Bruce Roberts, dramatic scenes erupted at his inquest.

Roberts lived with the body decomposing in a bedroom for 15 years before dying of natural causes, according to the investigation before the New South Wales Coroner's Court in Australia.

The murdered man's sister screamed in court after Deputy State Coroner Derek Lee learned that Snellman, a drug user, had possibly broken into Roberts' Greenwich home.

"No, he has never forced entry." That house was never broken into by him. In the Coroner's Court, a woman only known as Belinda cried out, "He already recognized him [Roberts]."

Roberts, who was 46 at the time, shot Snellman, who was 39, in his house on Sydney's North Shore in October 2002, according to the inquest.

In Roberts' home, police discovered 19 illicit weapons and vast stocks of ammunition amid piles of hoarded rubble.

Snellman's body was discovered by cleaners clearing the property for sale on May 29, 2018, a year after Roberts died of a heart attack in 2017.

A large number of air freshener items were found around his body in a bedroom in Roberts' home, according to the Coroner's Court.

Snellman was fully dressed and slumped to the left in his sitting posture. The supraclavicular fossa, the indentation in the neck above the collar bone, had been shot.

Tattoos, DNA, and fingerprints were used to identify the murdered man's remains.

Snellman was found with 15 metallic particles in his chest and abdomen, and toxicology tests showed that he had used amphetamines, buprenorphine, and methamphetamine before his death.

Snellman and Roberts were "strangers in life" who had a "chance meeting" at the hoarder's Greenwich home, according to the inquest.

Bruce Andrew Roberts was born in 1956 in Coonabarabran to a wealthy family that owned Greenwich House, but he had a strained relationship with his sister.

Roberts was described as "a little odd, a loner, socially awkward" by his cousin, with whom he was close.

Roberts paid his relatives to secure the Greenwich house and stayed there since he had inherited more than A$1 million in mining company BHP and other shares.

He had more than A$600,000 in the bank when he died in 2017.

His reclusiveness had gotten worse as he grew older, and he had hypertension and varicose veins. He had last seen his doctor in May 2017, complaining of chest pains but refusing care.

When his neighbors noticed he hadn't been seen in a few weeks, they called the cops, who forced their way into the building.

They discovered then-60-year-old Roberts' body among the debris inside, lying on top of an active bar heater, with considerable damage to the body due to the heater still being on.

Cleaners did not begin cleaning the grounds until May 24, 2018, five days after Snellman's body was discovered.

Shane John Snellman was raised in a Catholic convent home for children at a young age and then passed around boys' homes, according to the inquest.

He had been charged with the murder of a homeless man as a 15-year-old, was convicted, and later became addicted to drugs.

Snellman had previously served time in jail for property and fraud offenses, as well as a year in prison between 2001 and June 2002 for a drug delivery conviction.

He reunited with an old girlfriend after his release, who described him as "thin and possibly addicted to methylamphetamine."

He was last seen in Campbelltown, in shared housing, in October 2002, the same month he was murdered.

Before he was murdered, Snellman had been alienated from his family for years.

John Snellman characterized his son as a decent guy who was prone to rash decisions.

Tracy Lee Snellman Trudgett, one of Shane's sisters, said she last saw her brother on a prison visit in 2008, but that he had "never been forgotten."

When police knocked on her door to claim they had found her only brother's remains, she said she "screamed and fell to the floor."

Neighbors of the Greenwich house identified former homeowner Roberts as a "creepy" loner and hoarder after the mummified body was discovered.

"No one has come close to the building." "The house must have been pretty bad inside," Gayle Meagher, a next-door neighbor, told nine.com.au.

"He was a bit of a recluse with mental problems."

"Everything was locked up," says the narrator. Within the windows, you couldn't see anything. We'd either hear or see him outside, always in a big brown coat, no matter what the weather was like."

The house on Greendale Street in Greenwich was sold for A$2.01 million in 2018, and the 600 square meter plot has since been redeveloped.

Publish : 2021-05-20 10:46:00

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