Maria Elena Milagro de Hoyos
Now It Gets Weird
Shortly after Elena’s death, Tanzler talked the family into giving him residence in her room, paying them a fee of $20 a month (about $345 in today’s money). He also built and interred Elena in an elaborate mausoleum compete with a phone. For two years, he visited his love every day, but in 1933 when he was fired from the hospital, his visits stopped. Soon after he was fired, during one of his night visits the lovesick doctor took the body of his loved one from the crypt in a toy wagon. With the help of wax, plaster, hooks and strings he made her remains look like a living person, and didn’t save on dresses or perfume — he had to deal with the smell of the decay all the time. Since then and until his arrangement was uncovered in 1940, Tanzler had never slept alone — he shared the marital bed with Elena’s body. Later examination of the body showed to what extent had gone in his attempts to be close to her: a glass tube that made penetration easier was discovered in the woman’s vagina. At the end of the tube was cotton balls which, upon examination, showed evidence of semen.
Upon her discover, school was let out earlier and poor Elena’s desecrated body was put on display to be viewed by over 6,850 people at the Dean-Lopez Funeral Home.
Shortly after his arrest, he was eventually found “not guilty” of all charges due to the statute of limitations. To protect Elena’s remains from the new possible endeavours of the man, this time her relatives buried her in an unmarked grave. Four years after the trial, Tanzer moved to Pasco County in Florida, where he wrote his autobiography titled Fantastic Adventures. The evening he departed Key West Elena’s mausoleum “mysteriously” was destroyed by a bomb.
Separated from his obsession, Tanzler used a death mask to create a life-sized effigy of Elena and lived with it until his death at age 75 on July 3, 1952. His body was discovered on the floor of his home three weeks after his death. He died under the name “Carl Tanzler”. It has been recounted that Tanzler was found in the arms of Elena’s effigy upon discovery of his corpse. Still, his obituary reported that he died on the floor behind one of his organs. The obituary recounted: “a metal cylinder on a shelf above a table in it wrapped in silken cloth and a robe was a waxen image”.
Cemetery Information:
Final Resting Place:
Key West City Cemetery
701 Passover Ln, Key West, FL
Key West, Florida, 33040
USA
North America
Map:
Grave Location:
HiddenGrave Location Description
After the body of Elena was found at the home of Carl Tanzler in Key West, Elena’s body was put on public display to be viewed by over 6,850 people at the Dean-Lopez Funeral Home (because … it’s Florida). She was then buried in an unmarked grave by undertaker Benjamin Sawyer, cemetery sexton Otto Bethel and chief of police Bienvenido Perez, all of whom have taken this location to their own graves as a secret never to be revealed. It is believed no one living today knows her exact whereabouts so she may rest in peace for all eternity. Tanzler moved from Key West to Zephyrhills near where his wife and sister lived, but not before using a time-bomb to blow up the empty tomb.
Photos:
Read More About Maria Elena Milagro de Hoyos:
- Wikipedia Entry
- Twists in a Twisted Tale: The Exploitation, Defilement and Murder of Elena Hoyos
- In Bed with Death: A Story of a Man Who Lived with the Body of His Loved One for Seven Years
- Strange Love: The Morbid Obsession of Carl Tanzler
- Meet Carl von Cosel, the Man Who Slept Next to His Crush's Corpse for 7 Years
- The Corpse Bride - A Story of Carl Tanzler and Maria Elena Milagro de Hoyos
- The Disturbing True Story Of Carl Tanzler And The Corpse He Dug Up And Lived With For Seven Years
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