Neighbors: Mystery Surrounds Possible Homicide Victim in Death as Well as in Life

Kenosha---Police are treating the death of a man whose decomposing body was found in his home Tuesday as suspicious. 

Just before noon, police were called to 59th Pl. and 4th Ave. by a construction crew that had come across a foul odor. They traced the origin to a small, one-story home on the corner.  

Neighbor Susan Rondeau said police told her the victim was in fact the homeowner, who also was Rondeau's landlord. He'd been shot multiple times, according to what Rondeau was told. 

"The last time I saw Michael was the 4th of July," Rondeau said. "He was the best landlord I ever had. I'm pretty bummed that he's dead," she said.

While having nothing but good things to say about her landlord of the past year-and-a-half, Rondeau found him to be rather mysterious at times. He lived in his house only during the summer, apparently spending winters in a warmer climate. He purportedly told another tenant of his across the street  that he had a girlfriend in Hawaii and was thinking about moving there permanently.

Rondeau believed Michael to be married, only because he told her that the rent checks were to be made out to a woman whom he described as his wife. On one occasion,  Michael skirted a casual question about what he did for a living. "I just thought that he was independently wealthy," she said. 

The street in front of the man's house was cordoned off for hours. Fans were positioned to ventilate the place. The Racine Fire Belles were called in to provide refreshments for investigators and other officers who were on scene.  

Police are saying very little about the case and have not confirmed the man's identity or the cause of death. 

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