Pack Rat Found Dead in Her Hoarded Possessions

We fill our lives with things, so many things. What are your most important material possessions?

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A Las Vegas woman who had been missing for four months was found buried beneath a mountain of garbage and clutter in her own home.

Bill James brought the search for his wife Billie Jean to a horrifying conclusion on Wednesday when he spotted her feet sticking out from the pile of junk that filled the room from floor to ceiling.
The collected clothes, trash and knickknacks in Billie Jean James's house was so vast that sniffer dogs had searched the home without finding her corpse, The Associated Press reported.

Sari Connolly, a friend of' Billie Jean's, said she had become so obsessive in her hoarding that she kept people out of her home, even refusing to let them use the bathroom.

"She became this hoarder person, and she wouldn't let anyone come in her house," Connolly said.

Cassell told the AP that the house had only small amounts of clear space so that people could get around, and that the home was filled with strong odors from animals, garbage and food.

Billie Jean is not the first person whose hoarding instincts proved fatal. In May, an aging Chicago couple was trapped for two weeks after being buried in their belongings. When they were rescued, they were found to have rat bites on their bodies.

What possessions could you really give up? It is easy to judge these people as crazy, but is it not just as bad to be obsessed with one thing a great deal as it is to be obsessed with so many things a little?

Could you give up your cell phone?

(ORIGINAL LINK) Las Vegas Pack Rat Found Dead in Her Hoarded Possessions