A decomposing body was found in a Florida nursing home closet

NORTH MIAMI, Fla. – A family believes a body found in a Florida nursing home’s closet is a 71-year-old man who went missing from the facility nearly two weeks earlier.

The family of Elin Etienne believes it was his decomposing body that was found Monday in a closet at the North Dade Nursing & Rehabilitation Center, 11 days after he went missing. He had been a patient at the facility after suffering a brain aneurysm earlier in August, the family said. North Miami Police issued a missing person alert for him Aug. 23, a day after he disappeared.

Ruth Keisha Etienne, his granddaughter, told WTVJ-TV that nursing home administrators never notified them a body had been found. She said an anonymous caller told them, so they contacted administrators.

“They said they found him in a closet and he was already decomposing, and they refused to let us see the body,” Etienne told the station. “And we tried to speak to the nursing home people, but they refused to speak to us. They don’t want to talk to us. I wonder why?”

The nursing home declined comment Wednesday. The Miami-Dade County Medical Examiner’s Office said Wednesday that the body still had not been identified. Police said they are conducting a death investigation.

State nursing home regulators did not immediately return a call Wednesday seeking comment.