Reclusive Couple Found Dead After 2 Weeks

The bodies of an elderly couple believed to have been dead for two weeks were found in their apartment after worried neighbors notified police that the reclusive pair had been missing, authorities said Tuesday.

Costa Mesa police broke into the triplex on the 1300 block of Baker Street and found Nicolas F. Ydaboy, 84, and his bedridden wife, Lucinda, 81, dead. The couple died of natural causes, according to autopsy results.

The preliminary autopsy results indicated that Ydaboy died first, from heart failure, said coroner’s investigator Stan Zak. The man’s body was found in the living room of the two-bedroom apartment.

It is believe that his wife, unable to care for herself, died three to four days later in her bed. Possible causes of her death are extreme dehydration and conditions related to hardening of the arteries, Zak said. Final autopsy results will not be available for more than two months, he added.

“The woman was senile and would have been helpless without her husband because he totally took care of her needs,” said landlord Allen Milbert, who purchased the building six months ago.

The couple have no known relatives in the area, Zak said.

“They were a very loving, devoted couple who lived in total isolation--they weren’t interested in neighbors coming to the door,” he continued. “And through their interdependence, they ended up perishing together.”

Milbert said he alerted residents in an adjacent apartment that something appeared to be amiss because Ydaboy, who was consistently prompt in mailing cashier’s checks for the rent, had missed a monthly payment.

Neighbor Tao Do called police at 9 p.m. Sunday. He, too, was worried because Ydaboy hadn’t taken his daily walk to the mailbox in more than two weeks and it was overflowing with letters. In addition, Do said, the couple’s ground-level apartment had remained dark several nights in a row.

“He was a very nice man,” Do said, noting that he rarely saw Ydaboy’s wife.

Milbert said Ydaboy’s wife did not appear to be aware of her surroundings and often spoke to herself in a foreign language.

“My heart went out to them,” he said. “Their life was pretty well coupled. (Ydaboy) was a very fine person and a very proper and proud man. I think he was very protective of his wife. When I knocked on the door, he would open it only a crack. I would’ve liked to interact with them more, but I respected their privacy.”

The couple did not own a car, but Milbert said their apartment was well-furnished, with religious icons and family photos decorating the front room. Ydaboy was always well-dressed, he added.

Neither Do nor his family had been inside the couple’s apartment. He said the only noise they heard was the sound of the television at night and voices from people who occasionally visited.

“I would say that in the last year, no one has come to visit them,” Do said. “They just stayed inside. Sometimes, I’d talk to (Ydaboy) out by the trash cans. I’d say ‘Hi’ and ask how he was doing.”

The elderly man never mentioned any hobbies, family or friends, Do said.

Milbert said he did not know the source of the couple’s income.

“They had lived there for years and always paid the rent one day in advance, so no one questioned it,” he explained.

A former resident of the building next door recalled a brief encounter with the timid couple when his children lost the family’s pet turtle in the Ydaboys’ back yard, which he described as overgrown with weeds.

“The old man was very nice and let us go through the house to get to the yard,” Mike Bremer said. “His wife was sitting in a chair, but it didn’t seem like she could move too well. From the musty smell in there, it seemed like they kept the doors and windows closed all the time.”

Bremer added that he wasn’t surprised that it took neighbors in the duplex two weeks to realize something was wrong.

“They weren’t the type of people that would come out of the house very often,” he said.