What the Meter Reader Saw: Grisly Mystery in a Patio Chair

No one is quite sure how long the man sat in the patio chair in his darkened basement.

When a gas meter reader finally found him Thursday, he was still comfortably dressed in a woolly blue and white sweater, sweat pants and slippers. Except that his head was missing.

The seated, skeletal remains were so decomposed that the skull had apparently toppled away, police said.

Authorities tentatively identified the body Friday as that of Long Lu Lee, 69, a mechanical engineer.

When Lee died--and how--remained a mystery. A woman who investigators believe was Lee’s wife, Thuc Khoanh Lu, 62, was providing few answers, authorities said.

Lu told police she had not seen her husband for several months. But police could not find a missing-person report, said Sgt. Edward Caro, a police spokesman.

The results of an autopsy Friday were inconclusive and doctors will conduct more tests.

Brooklyn Union Gas Co. had been trying, unsuccessfully, to read the meter at the home in the borough of Queens for more than a year, said spokesman Ed Yutkowitz.

Armed with a court order, a meter reader went to the home along with a city marshal and a locksmith.

Lu tried to discourage them from going into the basement, Caro said.

They pushed their way through a huge, sticky cobweb and found the headless skeleton sitting in the white plastic chair near a boiler, Caro said.

Lee’s wallet was found in a pants pocket, his head under the chair.