NEWPORT NEWS, Va. -- Police said the man whose body they found inside his Virginia home over the weekend had died years earlier, according to WTKR.
Officers made the grisly discover Saturday in the Lee's Mills Homes community at the 400 block of Rivers Ridge Circle. Court documents say the homeowner was 68-year-old Charles Rafkind.
It all started with a phone call when an unidentified neighbor told a WTKR that he got a call to do a welfare check on his next door neighbor on February 8.
"The nephew called me. I told him I couldn't go on Friday because I was going out of town, but I can do it on Saturday," said the unidentified neighbor.
He said that he checked the home around 9:30 a.m on February 10 and said an odor was coming from inside.
No one answered after several knocks, so the unidentified neighbor called police.
"I gave them the keys, they entered the house and found the gentleman," he added.
Newport News police said they found a man's body inside and that he had been dead for several years.
Officers believe the man was in his late sixties.
Neighbors who thought the man could've possibly been sent to a nursing home or moved away with his family told WTKR they were stunned to find out that he was inside his home the entire time.
"Summer has come and we didn't smell anything," a neighbor said.
The neighbor who did the welfare check and called police said the man's family is in California and he lived alone, taking care of himself.
He said the last time they saw each other was two years ago.
"He was very secluded. He didn't want to be bothered with a bunch of people."
Police believe there was no foul play involving the man's death.
