Going through the stages of grieving a loved one can be hard. Even when we know that they've lived a good life, it is hard to let them go.
Many people take months or years to move on from the death emotionally, but when it comes to the physical remains, people usually deal with it right away.
There are actually a lot of people who arrange for their funerals before they die, hoping it will make it easier for their loved ones to grieve and move on.
But apparently that isn't always the case. When 69-year-old Donna Sue Hudgins arrived at the Enfield funeral home saying her mother had passed and she needed to arrange a funeral, they were happy to help.
Hudgins claimed that she didn't know where the emergency responders took the body, so they offered to help track down her mother's remains at the hospital.
When the funeral home could find no traces of Nellie May Hudgins at the hospitals, they contacted police. The investigation led the police back to the home where both Hudgins and her mother lived.
When Detective Willie Murphy Jr and Detective Teo Antunez Jr. arrived to complete a wellness check, they discovered the horrific sight of the decomposed remains of Nellie May.
Upon investigation, they learned that Nellie May had actually died several months prior to Hudgins' report to the funeral home, and she had been allowing her 93-year-old mother's body to decompose in her house.
Authorities claim that she said she "was curious and wanted to see the stages of death."
Kenny Velasquez is a family member of Nellie May and when he spoke with WRAL he revealed that there had been hints that something was wrong.
"Every time somebody would stop by, she would meet us at the door, say she's asleep or something like that," he said. "Apparently every time someone would call, same thing."
Neighbors also began to notice a smell coming from the home, but they didn't imagine that it would be a body.
"I still didn't pay it no mind," neighbor Edna Burgess said. "I thought maybe it was a sewer or something."
Hudgins was arrested and issued a $5,000 bond, and will be due in court on November 7th for sentencing based on the felony charge of concealment of death.
Source - NewsWeek / Enfield Police Department / WRAL
