75-year-old man lay dead in Hyderabad flat, family finds body after a month

Police say the man, who was living alone, is suspected to have died in August after he stepped on a lizard and slipped, injuring his head. His wife and daughter returned from the US two days ago.

The decomposed body of a 75-year-old government employee was found in his flat at Sai Maruti Residency in Rocktown area in Hyderabad, the police said late on Friday.

Lakshminarayana Murthy was not answering phone calls from his wife and two daughters in the US. As he had kept the mobile phone on charging, they simply assumed he was unhappy with them. (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

The death of Lakshminarayana Murthy came to light only after his wife and two daughters returned from the US two days ago.

Murthy, who lived alone in a top floor flat, is suspected to have died on August 18 after the fall. Since all the doors and windows were closed, other residents in the building did not get any foul smell.

A police officer said Murthy seemed to have stepped on a lizard and fallen down while coming out of the bath. He sustained head injuries and died on the spot.

A dead lizard was found near his feet, indicating he skidded after stepping on it.

Murthy was not answering phone calls from his wife and two daughters in the US. As he had kept the mobile phone on charging, they simply assumed he was unhappy with them.

But when there was no response even after a month, they decided to return to Hyderabad and check on him.

As there was no response from inside, the wife and daughter broke open the door to find his body in a highly decomposed state.

Originally hailing from Rajamahendravaram in Andhra Pradesh, Murthy, a retired government employee, was not known to people in the apartment. Residents thought the flat was locked from outside and that the owner lives in the US.

Murthy had turned down repeated requests by his daughters to move to the US to live with them. In July, he had sent his wife to the US but preferred to live alone in Hyderabad.