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Tanzler paid for her funeral and built a large mausoleum, to which he alone had a key.
The story of Carl Tanzler and Elena de Hoyos is one of obsession that went far beyond normal limits. It is not about murder or stalking the living. It is about a man who lived with a dead body for years.
In 1931, 22-year-old Elena de Hoyos was taken to the Marine Hospital in Key West, Florida. She had tuberculosis, a deadly disease at that time. Carl Tanzler, also known as Count Carl Von Cosel, was a radiologic technician at the hospital. He was not a doctor but believed he could save her life.
Tanzler tried unusual treatments, including potions and devices with electrodes. He confessed his love to Elena, but she was not interested. Sadly, she died on October 25, 1931.
Mausoleum and Secret Visits
Tanzler paid for her funeral and built a large mausoleum, to which he alone had a key. For two years, he visited her grave every night, leaving gifts and even installing a phone inside the tomb.
The Shocking Discovery
In 1940, rumours spread that Tanzler was living with Elena's body. Her sister visited him and discovered that it was true. Tanzler had taken her corpse from the tomb in 1933. He preserved the body using coat hangers, wax, glass eyes and perfume to mask the smell.
He reconstructed her face with plaster and made a wig from her real hair. Her body was dressed, bejewelled and kept in his bed. An autopsy revealed disturbing modifications, but there was no evidence of sexual acts.
A Plan to Bring Her Back
Tanzler believed he could revive Elena. He built a lab shaped like an aeroplane and claimed flying her into the stratosphere would restore life.
Trial and Public Sympathy
Tanzler was arrested for grave robbery, but charges were dropped because the statute of limitations had expired. Surprisingly, the public pitied him. Elena's body was displayed at a funeral home, where 6,000 people came to see it before it was buried again in an unmarked grave.
Tanzler's Life and Death
Carl Tanzler was born in Austria in 1877, married and had two children before abandoning them. He believed he had a vision of his one true love—a dark-haired woman, whom he thought was Elena.
He died in 1952, reportedly still with a life-size doll of Elena by his side.
This bizarre case remains one of the strangest love stories ever told.
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