--- title: Little Boy Finds Mummified Body in Abandoned House description: A curious 12-year-old boy ventured into an abandoned house, hidden behind the front yard's overgrowth, in Dayton, Ohio Sunday. canonical: https://time.com/2889643/mummified-body/ author: Laura Stampler article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-06-17T14:54:54.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:10:51.368Z og:title: Little Boy Finds Mummified Body in Abandoned House og:description: Real life. og:url: https://time.com/2889643/mummified-body/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt401d8f6c8f46d95e/698697e4361760ec8190ca65/118116799.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3708 og:image:height: 2086 og:image:alt: 118116799 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Little Boy Finds Mummified Body in Abandoned House twitter:description: Real life. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt401d8f6c8f46d95e/698697e4361760ec8190ca65/118116799.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Little Boy Finds Mummified Body in Empty House Because Horror Movies Are Real > Sponsored content. 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Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-brief-2026q3/newsletters?i=a95fa07e-7be8-4649-bf15-c32241f44780&cr=time-nl-brief-2026q3-v1) by [Laura Stampler](https://time.com/author/laura-stampler/) ## Laura Stampler Jun 17, 2014 2:54 PM UTC  Mummy Mummy Getty Images by [Laura Stampler](https://time.com/author/laura-stampler/) ## Laura Stampler Jun 17, 2014 2:54 PM UTC A curious 12-year-old boy ventured into a semi-hidden abandoned house in Dayton, Ohio Sunday. He then found a [mummified corpse hanging by a rope in the closet.](http://www.cnn.com/2014/06/17/us/ohio-mummified-body/index.html?hpt=hp%5Ft2) This isn’t a viral marketing stunt for the next season of _American Horror Story_. The movie-trope occurred in real life, and the body of resident Edward Bruton is thought to have been hanging there since 2009\. Being stored in the closet may have helped prevent the body from decomposing too heavily. While the coroner suspects suicide, no official cause of death has been determined. \[[_CNN_](http://www.cnn.com/2014/06/17/us/ohio-mummified-body/index.html?hpt=hp%5Ft2)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/2889643/mummified-body/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/2889643/mummified-body/"},"headline":"Little Boy Finds Mummified Body in Empty House Because Horror Movies Are Real","datePublished":"2014-06-17T14:54:54.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:10:51.368Z","description":"Yes, this is real life","url":"https://time.com/2889643/mummified-body/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Death","Bizarre","News"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt401d8f6c8f46d95e/698697e4361760ec8190ca65/118116799.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Laura Stampler","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/laura-stampler/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt401d8f6c8f46d95e/698697e4361760ec8190ca65/118116799.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"118116799","caption":"118116799","creditText":"Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/2889643/mummified-body/","name":"Little Boy Finds Mummified Body in Empty House Because Horror Movies Are Real"}}]}] ```