Law enforcement officials found 17 corpses in a shed belonging to a New Jersey retirement home earlier this week.
The discovery of the bodies on Monday only occurred after New Jersey police received an anonymous tip alleging that a long-term care facility, Andover Subacute and Rehabilitation Center I and II, was housing a body in the shed on-site, according to the New York Times. Officers did not find the body the tip referenced, but they did discover 17 others in a small morgue intended to hold only a handful of people.
The 17 were among 68 recent deaths linked to the facilities, including two nurses. Of those who died, 26 people had tested positive for the virus. Thirteen of the bodies discovered at the Andover facility were moved to a refrigerated truck outside a local hospital, while a funeral home made arrangements to pick up the other four, according to Eric C. Danielson, the police chief in Andover, a small township in Sussex County.
“They were just overwhelmed by the amount of people who were expiring,” Danielson said.
Prior to the discovery of the bodies, New Jersey Democratic Rep. Josh Gottheimer received a call from one of the nursing home’s administrators informing him that more body bags were needed.
“The challenge we’re having with all of these nursing homes is once it spreads, it’s like a wildfire,” Gottheimer said. “It’s very hard to stop it.”
He added, “It’s scary for everybody — for the residents and for the staff. What is surprising to me is how many are dying in house versus the hospital.”
Representatives for the nursing home have repeatedly issued pleas for assistance from local government leaders.
“To all the people calling into the governor’s office, the congressman’s office to help us tell them WE NEED HELP,” a representative of Andover Subacute & Rehab Center II wrote on Facebook Monday night before deleting it on Wednesday.
The remaining nursing home residents have been separated on different floors or wings based on whether they have contracted the coronavirus. The virus has attacked nursing homes throughout the country as the elderly are more likely to have a tough time fighting it off.
