UPDATE:
The coroner ruled late Monday that the victim died when he fell into the sinkhole and the sides collapsed on top of him, suffocated him.
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Authorities are still trying to determine how a man died Friday night after he was found at the bottom of a sinkhole. CBS 21 News has discovered that the sinkhole didn’t just happen; it had been there for weeks.
We spoke to the man who owns the house where this happened. He didn’t want to go on camera, but he said the man who died was trying to fill the weeks-old sinkhole before the kids start trick-or-treating on Halloween.
Police were called to the house on the 1800 block of Conestoga Avenue in West Lampeter Township Friday night. The sinkhole was just a few feet wide and about six feet deep.
The man who died, Timothy Hougendobler, was according to the homeowner, mentally disabled. He said Hougendobler was staying there because the 59-yer-old was having issues with his apartment.
Friday night when the homeowner came home he couldn’t find Hougendobler at first. He then located him in the sinkhole and he was unresponsive. Now the neighborhood is shaken up.
“Pain, It’s one of our own,” explained neighbor Jerry. “It hit close to home here. You already read about it. And see stories about it. But not at home. Not so close by.”
The sinkhole, which as you saw was in the yard of the homeowners near the front sidewalk, was filed by work crews.
The coroner ruled late Monday that the victim died when he fell into the sinkhole and the sides collapsed on top of him, suffocated him.
___________________________________________
Authorities are still trying to determine how a man died Friday night after he was found at the bottom of a sinkhole. CBS 21 News has discovered that the sinkhole didn’t just happen; it had been there for weeks.
We spoke to the man who owns the house where this happened. He didn’t want to go on camera, but he said the man who died was trying to fill the weeks-old sinkhole before the kids start trick-or-treating on Halloween.
Police were called to the house on the 1800 block of Conestoga Avenue in West Lampeter Township Friday night. The sinkhole was just a few feet wide and about six feet deep.
The man who died, Timothy Hougendobler, was according to the homeowner, mentally disabled. He said Hougendobler was staying there because the 59-yer-old was having issues with his apartment.
Friday night when the homeowner came home he couldn’t find Hougendobler at first. He then located him in the sinkhole and he was unresponsive. Now the neighborhood is shaken up.
“Pain, It’s one of our own,” explained neighbor Jerry. “It hit close to home here. You already read about it. And see stories about it. But not at home. Not so close by.”
The sinkhole, which as you saw was in the yard of the homeowners near the front sidewalk, was filed by work crews.