A Connecticut man who snapped up a picturesque foreclosure property for hundreds of thousands below its listed value walked into a nightmare days later.

The buyer had purchased the Cape Cod-style house in Burlington 'as is' at a court-ordered auction, without anyone entering the building beforehand.

But when he finally stepped through the door, he found the skeletal remains of three people inside the seemingly abandoned home.

The case has sent shockwaves through the quiet Hartford-area town, where the home's tidy Cape Cod exterior gave no obvious warning of the grim secret within. 

Troopers were called to the property on Stanwich Lane at around 4:45pm on June 14 after the new owner made the horrifying discovery.

Investigators later confirmed that the remains of three people had been found inside.

Their identities have not been released, and the state medical examiner has yet to determine how or when they died.

Police said there was currently no evidence that a crime had been committed and stressed that there was no threat to the wider public.

'This appears to be an isolated incident and there is no danger to the public at this time,' Connecticut State Police said.

The property, a charming home built in 2002, was sold at auction on June 6 for $525,000 - despite court records putting its fair market value at $820,000.

The winning bidder, identified in court filings as Edward Marchion, paid an $82,000 deposit to secure the property.

But the sale had been conducted without an inspection of the interior, according to documents filed in the foreclosure case.

The house was visibly run-down from the outside, the records state, but there were also signs indicating that someone could still be inside.

'While the premises was in an obvious state of neglect, there were two newly erected signs reading "Keep Out" and "Owner Occupied Premises,"' the court records said.

No one entered the building before the auction was completed.

Christopher Thogmartin, the court-appointed attorney overseeing the sale, said he had attempted to encourage the owners to give prospective buyers access to the house before bidding began.

'I always send out a letter, like the week before the auction saying, listen, you know, there's a foreclosure auction scheduled,' Thogmartin told NBC Connecticut.

'It would be helpful for the bidders to have interior access. You're not required to provide this, but I think it might be in your best interest.'

'We never got a response to that, which is not unusual,' Thogmartin said.

The mystery was only deepened by the appearance of the warning signs on the neglected property.

'I don't think anyone has been inside, but who knows?' Thogmartin said. 'I mean, it puzzles me as to who would put that sign up. I suppose it could have been the owner.'

The home had belonged to Paul and Sally Anne Cash, who took out a mortgage loan of nearly $400,000 in 2019, according to court documents.

That debt was later held by Shellpoint Mortgage Servicing before the foreclosure action began.

A state marshal left a summons at the address in August 2025, records show.

The owners did not appear in the case, and a motion seeking a default judgment was filed in October. A foreclosure judgment followed in March.

Thogmartin said the owners had not responded to the notices sent during the case.

'I don't believe there was an appearance filed, and there was certainly no response to the letters I sent,' he said.

Because the property was sold through foreclosure, it was exempt from Connecticut's normal residential condition-disclosure rules - meaning there was no requirement for a seller to reveal possible defects, damage or hazards inside the home.

The Burlington Volunteer Fire Department was called in after the remains were found and tested the property for carbon monoxide, but said there was no indication of the deadly gas.

Fire department records show crews had previously been dispatched to the address several times since 2021, including three medical calls between November and December of that year.

The department also responded to an alarm at the property last month.

At that time, the house appeared to be empty, spokesman Michael J. Boucher said.

'Efforts were made by law enforcement to contact the property management company,' Boucher said in a statement.

'Entry was not made into the residence, and fire department units cleared the scene without incident.'

Authorities have not said whether the remains are believed to be those of the former homeowners, whether anyone else had been living at the property or how long the bodies may have been inside.

Human remains have occasionally been discovered in abandoned and foreclosed homes across the United States.

In 2020, a foreclosure-auction buyer in Maryland found the body of a 39-year-old woman who had lived in the property.

And in 2015, a man who bought a foreclosed house in Florida found the mummified remains of its former owner.