By Daily Mail (U.S.) | Created at 2026-07-20 17:18:49 | Updated at 2026-08-09 06:35:06
2 weeks ago
A man who snapped up a bargain property in picturesque Connecticut was horrified to discover three dead bodies inside it.
Edward Marchion purchased the home sight unseen in June at a foreclosure auction, which meant prospective buyers were not allowed to inspect the interior of the house.
His $525,000 winning bid seemed to be a bargain for the charming home built in 2002 that court records placed at a fair market value of $820,000.
But when Marchion walked into the Cape-Cod style house located in the affluent Burlington suburb about 20 miles west of Hartford, he discovered the bodies, two of which have been identified.
Connecticut State Police described the remains as 'skeletal' and said they belonged to Sally Anne Cash, who would have been 54, and her son, Brian Cash, who would have turned 23 this month. The third body is undergoing DNA testing for identification.
Sally Anne was the previous co-owner of the house. She had purchased the property in 2019 with her husband, Paul Cash. The couple had taken out a mortgage loan of nearly $400,000 to pay for the residence.
It is unclear how the people found in the home died or how long their bodies were there, though police have said there is no evidence that a crime was committed and stressed that there was no threat to the wider public.
The Burlington Volunteer Fire Department was called in after the remains were found and tested the property for carbon monoxide, but said there was no indication of the deadly gas.
Three bodies were discovered in a Connecticut house purchased at a foreclosure auction
Police identified two of the bodies as the previous co-owner of the home, Sally Anne Cash, and her son, Brian Cash. The third is undergoing DNA testing for identification
The foreclosure process began after the home's co-owners, Sally Anne and her husband, Paul Cash, failed to respond to court notices and did not appear in the case
The house, located in the affluent Burlington suburb about 20 miles west of Hartford, before the lawn became totally overgrown
The previous owners of the property stopped making their roughly $3,000 per month mortgage payments in late 2024, according to court records reviewed by the Wall Street Journal, and their bank filed a foreclosure complaint in August last year.
The couple never replied to the foreclosure complaint and appeared to ignore a summons left at the address by a state marshal, court records show.
The Cashes did not appear in the case, and a motion seeking a default judgment was filed in October. A foreclosure judgment followed in March.
The lawyer appointed to oversee the foreclosure auction, Christopher Thogmartin, told the Journal he assumed the property was abandoned because its lawn was so overgrown when he first visited in May.
That immediately struck him as odd, however, because the house sat on more than two acres of land and was worth at least twice the amount left on its mortgage.
'Why would anyone walk away from that?' the lawyer said to the Journal.
And when Thogmartin returned to the property a few weeks before last month's auction, he noticed that two new signs had been mysteriously erected on the lawn.
'Keep out' and 'private property,' the signs read. It remains unclear who placed them there, but homeowners and tenants are typically permitted to remain in residences through foreclosure proceedings and aren't required to allow interior inspections.
The lawyer overseeing the auction thought the house was abandoned because the lawn was overgrown. But then two signs suddenly appeared on the property
It remains unclear who placed the mysterious signs but they led the lawyer to believe the house was still occupied
The Cape Cod-style home was sold at a bargain $525,000 after no one had inspected the interior. It is unclear how the people found inside died or how long their bodies were there
It was thus reasonable to assume that people were still living inside the house and had put up the signs, which meant Thogmartin did not have a right to order a locksmith and go into the property before the auction.
When more than 20 bidders arrived at the auction on June 8, they walked around the exterior of the house to survey it as best they could.
Marchion was declared the winner after six offers, and he paid an $82,000 deposit to secure the property.
He has asked the court to delay the closing until police complete their investigation. The court was scheduled to consider his request on Monday.
