ST. CLAIR TOWNSHIP — St. Clair Township police officers Josh Jackson and John Shaughnessy arrived at a St. Clair Township residence over the weekend to check on a possible deceased male.

Upon their arrival they met a family member and a friend of the deceased.

Jackson said upon entering the residence, they found it to be in deplorable conditions with only a narrow pathway through the house to walk through due to stuff piled from floor to ceiling. He also noted the house has not had running water for years.

They found the deceased male with rigor mortis set in around 10 p.m. An older family member said she had given him medicine around noon.

According to Jackson, the officers had to go outside to wait for NorthStar to arrive due to the smell of urine in the house burning their eyes.

Once North Star arrived, they tried to remove the body from the residence but couldn’t due to the narrow passageway through the house, according to Jackson. NorthStar then requested assistance from Calcutta and Glenmoor volunteer fire departments who determined the only way to get the body out of the house was to take out the wall section of the room he was in and pull him out that way.

Jackson noted the male had a long history of medical issues so at this point no foul play is suspected, but they are waiting for the coroner’s results to confirm that.

The male lived in the residence with a family member who left that day with another family member.

Jackson said that with St. Clair being a township with no zoning there is nothing they can do about the conditions of the house, but a report was sent to adult protective services for the other family member residing in the house.

“We forwarded it to the recommended agencies like Adult Protective Services. That is their area of expertise when it comes to the law and what we can do; we can do nothing,” Jackson said. “Adult Protective Services has a little more leeway. They have ways to determine people unfit to take care of themselves through the courts and everything and that lets them do stuff that we can’t.”

North Star transported the male to a funeral home in St. Clair Township and the coroner will go there to do the autopsy.