--- description: The 79-year-old man had no heating or plumbing title: Millionaire Found Dead in Rockland, Living As a Recluse image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [U.S.](/section/us/) ## U.S. Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [cities](/tag/cities/) ## cities Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Millionaire Found Dead Was a 'Hermit' by [Abby Abrams](/author/abby-abrams/) ## Abby Abrams Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Jul 2, 2014 3:40 PM CUT by [Abby Abrams](/author/abby-abrams/) ## Abby Abrams Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Jul 2, 2014 3:40 PM CUT George Konnight could have lived a lavish lifestyle, [but instead he lived like a hermit](http://www.lohud.com/story/news/local/rockland/2014/07/01/rockland-hermit-secret-millionaire/11910777/ "undefined"). The 79-year-old man was found dead Tuesday outside his home in Ramapo, N.Y., [_The Journal News_](http://www.lohud.com/story/news/local/rockland/2014/07/01/rockland-hermit-secret-millionaire/11910777/ "undefined") reports. Police said he had lived alone since his sister’s recent death and described him as a “hermit.” The home, a small house in the woods where Konnight and his siblings grew up, had no indoor heating or plumbing. But Konnight was not poor—in fact, he chose this simple life. He gained $3 million from the sale of about 31.5 acres of his family’s property in northern Ramapo to a New Jersey company, JIEM Properties, last November. Konnight’s sister Alice was listed as the seller. Ramapo Detective Lt. Mark Emma said Konnight’s skeletal remains were found at 11:52 a.m. Friday in the woods on his property. “He lived a very simple life, hermit-like,” Emma told _The Journal News_. “He was alone.” The Rockland Medical Examiner’s Office is doing an autopsy to determine Konnight’s cause of death, but it is not considered suspicious. \[[_The Journal News_](http://www.lohud.com/story/news/local/rockland/2014/07/01/rockland-hermit-secret-millionaire/11910777/ "undefined")\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/2950231/rockland-recluse-millionaire/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/2950231/rockland-recluse-millionaire/"},"headline":"Millionaire Found Dead Was a 'Hermit'","datePublished":"2014-07-02T15:40:05.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T08:56:38.464Z","description":"The 79-year-old man had no heating or plumbing","url":"https://time.com/2950231/rockland-recluse-millionaire/","keywords":["cities","New York","local","millionaires"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Abby Abrams","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/abby-abrams/"}],"articleSection":"U.S.","image":[],"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":"/section/us/","name":"U.S."}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/cities/","name":"cities"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/2950231/rockland-recluse-millionaire/","name":"Millionaire Found Dead Was a 'Hermit'"}}]}] ```