A man who evidently committed suicide in his south Minneapolis home a year ago or longer was not discovered until last month, when city officials inspected his boarded-up house.
David M. Nelson, 67, died of a shotgun blast to his head, according to the Hennepin County Medical Examiner's office. It wasn't known on Thursday why investigators went back to the house on April 25. They found Nelson dead in the basement, according to a police report.
The house in the 3200 block of Bloomington Av. S. had fallen into disrepair as early as September 2009, when the city received a call complaining of overgrown grass, a broken window, a disabled vehicle and a dilapidated garage, according to a city spokesman. A city inspector visited that month and again in October of 2009, issuing several repair orders, which were returned as undeliverable. A third inspection in January of 2010 determined that the building was vacant, according to city records.
Neighbor Joan Wilson said she thought she remembered city workers boarding up the house last year, but city officials said on Thursday that they found the house boarded up from the interior on Feb. 25, 2010.
The house was condemned on May 7 of last year.
A fire department crew reboarded a window on Oct. 6 after one of the boards became loose, a city spokesman said on Thursday.
Wilson said that the home- owner typically spent winters in Mexico but that when she saw city officials reopening the house last month, she went over to ask about him. She was turned away by police, she said.
It's believed Nelson, the registered property owner, lived alone.
