Man who bought 'bargain' auction home makes horror discovery inside

Man who bought 'bargain' auction home makes horror discovery inside A prospective buyer got the shock of a lifetime after purchasing a four-bedroom home in an auction - without being able to have a proper look at the property before the purchase Sometimes when it sounds too good to be true, that's because it is. That was what US man Edward Marchion has learned after taking the chance on the sale of a lifetime: a four-bedroom house in an affluent suburb on two acres of land in Connecticut. There was one catch: he wasn't allowed to step foot inside prior to the purchase.While some may be deterred by such a caveat, he went ahead and placed a bid on the home. He won, and the home was his. When he stepped inside, however, he found it already occupied. By three dead bodies. And so, poor Edward's sale of the century was soured. His $525,000 winning bid seemed like a bargain no more. The house, which court records placed at a fair market value of $820,000, was now significantly less charming. Connecticut State Police have since described the remains as 'skeletal'. Two of the bodies have been identified, with authorities confirming 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 still undergoing DNA tests in order to formally identify the remains. Sally Anne was the previous homeowner. She had bought the property with her husband, Paul Cash, in 2019, and took out a mortgage loan of nearly $400,000 to pay for the residence. But they had stopped making their roughly $3,000 per month mortgage payments in late 2024, as per court documents, and their bank filed to foreclose on home last August. 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. It was put up for auction by the bank, where it was bought by poor Edward Marchion sight unseen in June via a foreclosure auction. Prospective buyers were not allowed to inspect the interior of the house which is a common occurrence for foreclosure auctions worldwide. Sales such as this are very much considered to be "buyer beware" transactions, with properties are typically sold strictly as is with no interior viewings, inspections, or warranties. Access isn't granted prior to bidding, meaning all a buyer has to go off is the property's external conditions and public records of sale. According to the Wall Street Journal, the Cashes never replied to the foreclosure complaint from the bank. They also appeared to ignore a summons left at the address by a state marshal. They never appeared in court, and a motion seeking a default judgment was filed last October. A foreclosure judgment followed in March.Christopher Thogmartin, the lawyer appointed to oversee the foreclosure auction, told the WSJ he had assumed the property was abandoned because its lawn was so overgrown when he first visited the property back in May. He did mention that he found it odd that the home would be abandoned, considering it sat on more than two acres of land and was worth at least twice the amount left on its mortgage.He said: "Why would anyone walk away from that?" In a strange turn of events, when Thogmartin returned to the property few weeks before the ill-fated foreclosure auction, two new signs had mysteriously appeared on the home's overgrown lawn. "Keep out" and "private property", they read. Who put them there and why remains a mystery. But, it wasn't a sign of anything out of the ordinary with homeowners and tenants usually allowed to remain in homes throughout foreclosure proceedings.So, Thogmartin figured that it was reasonable to assume that the signs had been erected by the people still living inside. It nullified his rights to order a locksmith and go into the property before the auction, and invariably meant the skeletons remained undiscovered for even longer. A body typically reduces from a corpse to a skeleton in several months to a few years. The exact timeframe would depend on humidity, temperature, insect access, as well as numerous other factors. So it would seem unlikely the Cashes would have erected the signs themselves. No date of death has been provided so far by authorities for the remains.So, when June 8 rolled around and 20 prospective buyers arrived - including Edward Marchion - and they strolled around the home's exterior, bidders, lawyers, buying agents, and local authorities were still none the wiser that the Cashes abandoned their home at all. On that day, Marchion was declared the winner after six offers. He paid an $82,000 deposit to secure the property before making his grim discovery. He has now asked the courts to delay closing on the home until police complete their investigation. The court was scheduled to consider his request on Monday (July 20). As to why the Cashes died - and how long they have remained where they fell - remains a mystery for now. The Burlington Volunteer Fire Department was called in after the remains were discovered, and have since tested the property for gas and carbon monoxide leaks. Tests were negative; there was no indication of the deadly gas.