7 squatters took over US man's home even as his body lay rotting in the bathtub for 3 months

The police said that the body had been decomposing in the bathtub for about three months. (Representational image: Unsplash)

A group of seven burglars have been accused of squatting in and looting a dead man’s home in US's Georgia while his three-month-old dead body lay decomposing in the bathtub. They have also been accused of playing lottery with the dead man's money, the New York Post reported.

According to the Cobb County Police, who visited Robert Westbrook's home to check on him said that they found the 71-year-old dead in his bathtub, but the house was looted and bore signs of having lived in recently.

“He was in a severe state of decomposition. It’s called mummification,” detective Daniel Goduto told local outlet WANF, adding that Westbrook died of natural causes and that the body had been in the bathtub for around three months. “[The home] was ransacked. Drawers were overturned. His master bedroom was completely just disheveled. But then, there were items consistent with somebody still living there. The trash looked like it was taken out regularly. It looked like there was stuff in the garbage can that was fairly new."

A day after the police checked on the house, they received a call from neighbours claiming they saw people on Westbrook's property. When officers went to check on the home again, they found four suspects with the dead man's belongings -- including his money, electronics, and even his car -- loaded into their vehicle.

Three other suspects were apprehended from the nearby gas station, where Westbrook's remaining belongings were retrieved. “They had the victim’s credit cards. They had some checks from him,” Goduto said. “They were playing the lottery machines inside the gas station with his money.”

The detective added that all seven accused knew each other and some of them have criminal records. “It goes to show their moral compass, if you will,” Goduto said. “I mean, they broke into someone’s home. They saw him deceased on the ground and instead of saying, ‘Hey, we messed up. Let’s call 911. We found this guy dead,’ they decided to just live there.”