Realtor finds dead man inside home

By Pete Wicklund
Journal Times

Friday, October 3, 2008 1:39 PM CDT

CALEDONIA — A real estate agent found a startling sight Thursday afternoon when she went to inspect a home on the market in the 6300 block of East River Road.

Inside the sun room of the home was the body of a deceased 85-year-old Caledonia man, who had no known connection to the home.

Lt. Keith Stannis of the Caledonia Police Department said the Racine County Medical Examiner’s office ruled that Hugh Otten died of natural causes. There was no evidence of trauma or of forced entry to the home, Stannis said.

Stannis said Otten was last seen alive sometime between 3:30 and 4 p.m. Tuesday by a River Road resident who had befriended him since he showed up one day asking to see her garden. Otten, according to Stannis, apparently enjoyed driving down River Road.

Stannis said that according to Otten’s brother, he had a hobby of looking at homes that were on the market and would occasionally make a purchase. The speculation is that Otten stopped to look at the vacant home on East River Road and finding the back door unlocked apparently let himself in.

Otten’s Buick was found in the home’s driveway with its door slightly ajar, perhaps an indication that Otten did not plan to stay long at the house.

Otten was retired from a 30-year career as a teacher at St. Catherine’s High School in Racine. He resided at the Parkview Apartments on Douglas Avenue in Caledonia.

Stannis said that he checked with the two previous owners of the home, one of whom lived there since 2007 and the other who had resided there for 50 years, and neither knew Otten.

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