Playing PI with the Internet

When purchasing a home for the first time, I always imagined we would buy it from a family who had lived there awhile and they would take us under their wing and tell us all the ins and outs of the house. Perhaps they would even show us all the work they had done and regale us with stories of their lives in the house.

Alas, that wasn't the case with the home we ended up buying. You see, our house was part of an estate so all we knew was the name of the owner, that she was deceased and that a relative in another state was handling the transaction. Maybe it is the anthropologist in me or maybe I am just super nosey but after all was said and done I started to do some research on the internet regarding the previous owner.

The first thing I discovered was Cathy's (not her real name) obituary. She died in our house at the age of 65. Yes, you read that correctly she died in our house! While I was slightly creeped out by that fact at first, I am coming to terms with it. She had a husband, a daughter, and a son; she loved her dog and she was an amazing potter.

I also discovered that she had originally purchased our home back in 2001 and that her son lived with her. So why wasn't he living in the house, or handling the sale of it for that matter? Well, that's because he died back in 2006 at the age of 38 from complications of diabetes. Okay, what about the daughter? That I don't know, I haven't found anything about her other than she picked up the car that was in the garage the night before we got our keys. I think the lack of information on her is because her first and last name are very common, unlike her relatives.

So, what about Cathy's husband? I discovered that back in 2001 (the same year Cathy bought the house) he was indicted on charges for attempted murder. You see, he had a girlfriend while he was still married to Cathy and he allegedly attempted to kill this girlfriend. His defense and subsequent appeals stated that he had PTSD which he sustained during his tours of duty in Vietnam as a Marine. The court did not agree and he subsequently died in prison just three months after Cathy passed.

What a tragic family story! It is my hope that we can replace some of the sadness this family experienced in our home with happy and joyful memories!

Do you agree that it is a little terrifying how easy it was to piece together the history of this house  and its family in just one afternoon?