Content warning: This post contains true stories of bad people doing horrible things.
Halloween is full of spooks and scares and terrifying tales. The rental industry has its own share of frightening stories, but roommates from recent headlines are scary at levels that put chainsaw-wielding movie maniacs to shame. Today as we've got a roundup of some of the worst roommates imaginable, as well as some lessons that a renter can take away long after the Harley Quinn costumes have hit the trash bin.
The Tainted Tweets
In August of 2016, a man in Gilbert, Arizona of was arrested for shooting his roommate. However, when police investigated his Twitter account they escalated the charge from second degree murder to first degree murder. It turns out that the accused murderer had some serious problems with finding and keeping roommates for a very long time.
The accused had tweeted every year about having trouble finding roommates. In the weeks leading up to his arrest he had posted several tweets about how easy it was to obtain firearms and ammunition. A final ominous tweet two days before the murder was the kicker: "I need to move out of my place before I viciously murder my roommates." [Link - AZ Central]
Lesson learned: Follow your roommates on social media.
The Careless Caretaker
77 year old Gertha Curry lived in a shared Virginia boarding house for those suffering from mental illness. She shared a room with a 53 year old former nurse who was employed by the landlord to cook and care for the building and its many residents, some living up to 4 in a bedroom. Without an ID card, Curry had trouble getting consistent medical care despite her dementia, so no doctors followed up on her visits that showed she was severely underweight.
Curry was found 24 hours dead, alone in her bedroom weighing 46 pounds. The caretaker claimed that she was eating regularly but post-mortem examination found that there was no way for Curry to have fed or cared for herself in her last days and that she died of starvation and an overdose of sleeping pills. The caretaker was found guilty of murder this past August and sentenced to 42 years in prison, although her family and the landlord are being investigated as well for being complicit in the death. [Link - The Virginian-Pilot]
Lesson learned: Housing for those who cannot take care of themselves must be vetted even more carefully than the housing we choose for ourselves.
Eight Lives
A Manhattan nurse thought she had found a great roommate on Craigslist - clean cut, employed, polite. In fact, she's said on record that she was the best roommate she ever had. But just 3 months after moving in, she came home to find her cat Lucy hiding under the bed with injuries that would wind up costing over $10,000 in vet bills.
It was the fourth time in a row that she had come home to find her cat injured, and she had chalked up its skittishness around the new roommate as due to unfamiliarity. This time she found evidence in the bathroom that the harm was not accidental. Her roommate had broken the cats bones, ripped out her fur, broken her teeth and pulled out her claws.
The roommate was arrested but his employer revoked his visa and sent him back to Belfast, UK before a trial could take place. A warrant is currently out for his arrest in the US, but he appears to be living without fear of legal penalty as long as he remains in Northern Ireland.
The GoFundMe campaign for Lucy the Cat's vet bills raised $14000. She survived the ordeal and is back to being "spry, sassy and playful." Excess funds from the campaign were donated to the ASPCA. [Link - Gothamist]
Lesson learned: Pets are sometimes better than human resources departments at judging character.
The Dormitory Disaster
Montana State University's screening process for students have called into question after pairing new student Evan Clark with an existing student that had a pending felony case and a history of being moved from dorm to dorm for sex offenses and other bizarre behavior. MSU's student application asked students about felony convictions on their applications, but did not ask about pending charges.
Clark's roommate stole money from his debit card and mailbox and made his life miserable. Clark eventually tried to commit suicide due to the psychological distress. Clark and his parents are suing the university claiming they knew about the problem and did nothing. [Link - Bozeman Daily Chronicle]
Lesson learned: Screen your roommates, even if someone else chooses them on your behalf.
Two Years of Torture
Hospital workers in Canadian city of Regina, Saskatchewan were horrified when a man dropped off his roommate in 2010. The 30 year old man referred to in media reports as "DL" was close to death, his face mangled and weighing only 87 pounds. In 2009 DL had been hospitalized for injuries severe enough to require a medically-induced coma. His roommate explained that a refrigerator had fallen on him.
Now, a year later, doctors thought DL would die. He recovered but with severe brain damage and a mutilated face, and accused the roommate of two years of continuous torture, beatings and sexual abuse. He believes that brain damage from early beatings affected his ability to recognize and report the problem. The offender was been jailed indefinitely but is currently appealing his conviction. [Link - Huffington Post]
Lesson learned: If your friends and loved ones are living with strangers, check in on them often.
Have you learned any lessons of your own from living with bad roommates? Share them with us in the comments and keep renting safely!
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