A bullheaded hoarder who had always wondered what became of her son 20 years ago has discovered that he was lying dead upstairs the whole time.

But because in that location was and so much junk and bad smells in the house, she apparently had no thought.

Authorities in New York say they believe the adult female thought he had simply left home without saying anything.

Now the horrific truth has been revealed at the house on Avenue N almost Due east 22nd Street.

The mother is now quite elderly and had been living with the skeletal remains of her son, possibly for as long every bit twenty years, the New York Post reports.

She is a legally bullheaded hoarder who may non have even known he was there, NYPD sources told the paper.

The spooky discovery was made on 15 September when a relative arrived at Rita Wolfensohn's habitation in Midwood.

Rita was in infirmary and needed some things, and the relative was helping out.

Upstairs, in a bedchamber stuffed full of items, the sis-in-constabulary Josette Buchman found a "completely intact" skeleton, dressed in jeans, socks and a shirt, lying on its back on a thin mattress on the floor, constabulary sources told The Post.

The law-enforcement source told the paper information technology was similar something out of Hitchcock'due south finest horror – the 1960 moving-picture show in which a son, Norman Bates,keeps his expressionless mother's remains in a basement.

The source said: "It was like some reverse 'Psycho' scene."

Yet, it seems investigators actually believe Ms Wolfensohn may non take known she was living with the corpse of her son.

Cobwebs and garbage filled the room where the trunk was found.

The smell of decaying nutrient had long replaced any odor of rotting flesh.

Police asked her about her son, and she talked as if he had simply moved out.

Regime have not yet officially identified the body but believe the human being was Wolfensohn's son and that he died of natural causes.

Co-ordinate to public records, Wolfensohn had two sons, Michael and Louis.

Relatives said they had not seen Louis - who today would be 49 years old - in 20 years.

Michael died in 2003 at the age of 38, according to court documents, said the paper.