Neighbors alerted authorities after the smell of the decomposing body became unbearable.
When firefighters and Zapopan police officers forced their way into the house in the La Calma neighborhood, they discovered José Luis Contrera sitting next to his wife’s body in their bedroom. He told them that he was scared to report her death because he thought he might be implicated.
The house was in complete disorder.
Contreras was exonerated of all blame after an autopsy concluded that Gloria Yolanda Franklin y Soto, 73, died of heart failure.