Heartbreaking details have emerged about the tragic family story of a woman who was found living next to her dead brother’s body for five years.
Robert Natoli, who would have turned 76 this year, was found dead in the public housing unit he shared with his sister Maree, 74, on Russell Street in Newtown, in Geelong, Victoria, on December 29, 2022.
Maree slept next to her dead brother at the property which has been described as a “house of horrors”.
Forensic specialists in biohazard suits were forced to wade through rooms filled with trash, dead rats and possums, and human feces to reach his skeleton.
Revelations have since emerged about the brothers’ tragic family history after it was revealed that their father was burned to death in a horrific car accident.
The collision occurred on the Princes Highway near Avalon in August 1968 and the accident made the front page of the local newspaper at the time.
Robert Natoli, who would have turned 76 this year, as a happy Melbourne schoolboy. His father died in a car accident in 1969 and his mother also died in his youth, leaving him and his sister orphaned.
Natoli’s skeletal remains were found under piles of garbage in a bedroom
A cousin, who did not want to be identified, told Geelong Advertiser Their father’s death was hard on the brothers and a “tragic story.”
The cousin recalled her father going to the mortuary to identify Natoli’s father, who ran a fruit shop in Geelong, 55 years ago.
“These things tend to stick in the mind,” he said.
“It was a tragic story.”
Another family member said Mr. Natoli’s death “was really horrible.”
“Robert and his sister have had a troubled life,” they said.
It is believed that the brothers’ mother also died when they were young.
Another cousin, who also did not want to be identified, said the brothers had “always been together” after both parents died.
The cousin said the last time she saw the couple was 40 years ago at their own wedding.
‘We felt very bad for them because they were orphans. “They always tended to live together, and that’s all I knew,” she said.
It is believed that the couple never married or had children.
Another woman who preferred to remain anonymous said she believed their tragic childhood had impacted the second part of their lives.
‘I don’t know if reclusive is the right word, but they were kept secret. For his life to end like this is horrible. It’s not right,’ she said.
A powerful image of a young Natoli at a Melbourne school has emerged, humanizing the man people weren’t aware of until last week.
The 1964 photograph shows a smiling, happy-looking boy in the background of a class photograph.
Natoli is believed to have been born on January 4, 1948, and worked as a caravan fitter when he was younger.
Mr Natoli had lived in Geelong for more than four decades after having been in Melbourne for a time, and at one point attended Croydon Park Public School.
The Housing Department unit his siblings shared. Natoli is believed to have been dead for five years before his remains were found.
There are now plans to bury his remains in the same cemetery as his father’s headstone in Geelong’s Eastern Cemetery.
A humble plaque has already been placed in the place, without dates of birth or death.
A coroner is investigating the exact cause of Mr Natoli’s death. Last February, a death notice simply said he “died in Geelong”.
His sister, Maree, was interviewed by Geelong detectives and released without charge in December 2022 after forensic specialists in biohazard suits recovered Natoli’s remains.
In a heartbreaking video interview with Maree, taken by a concerned citizen after returning to her gated public housing property, she was seen sitting behind a mountain of trash.
“I’ve never been married, no kids, no partner, no anything,” Maree said.
‘I used to have a family, but now mom and dad passed away. I don’t have anyone now. And my aunts too. And uncles. I have cousins.’
When asked if she had any siblings, Maree said she didn’t have any.
‘No. No, I haven’t,’ she exclaimed sadly.
Maree sits among trash strewn across her garage hours after her brother was found rotting inside.
The woman who captured the video and asked to remain anonymous told Daily Mail Australia that Maree spent the next three days suffocating in her garage.
‘Marie arrived later that night after being arrested and we called the (housing) department straight away and they came and told her they weren’t allowing her in the house, so she left. And then the next morning, she was back doing her garden and moving the containers,” the woman said.
“That’s when she was sitting under the carport and I thought someone was with her, she was talking to someone in the backyard, but there was no one there.”
The woman said Maree seemed to be in good condition and was chatting happily about neighborhood gossip from years before.
‘She would remember people’s names. ‘She doesn’t have dementia because she could remember things that happened years ago…she was just having a normal conversation.’