Harrowing details have emerged about the tragic family history of a woman who was found living alongside the corpse of her dead brother for as long as five years.
Robert Natoli, who would have turned 76 this year, was found dead in the public housing unit he shared with his sister Maree, 74, on Russell Street at Newtown, in Geelong, Victoria, on December 29, 2022.
Maree slept alongside her dead brother in the property that has been described as a ‘house of horrors’.
Forensic specialists in biohazard suits were forced to wade through rooms filled with rubbish, dead rats and possums and human faeces to reach his skeleton.
Revelations have since emerged about the tragic family history of the siblings after it was revealed their father was burned to death in a horrific car crash.
The collision unfolded on the Princes Highway near Avalon in August 1968 with the crash featured on the front page of the local newspaper at the time.
Robert Natoli, who would have turned 76 this year, as a happy Melbourne school boy. His father was was killed in a fiery car crash in 1969 and his mother also died in his youth, leaving him and his sister orphans
Mr Natoli’s skeletal remains were found under piles of rubbish in a bedroom
One cousin, who didn’t want to be named, told the Geelong Advertiser the death of their father was hard on the siblings and a ‘tragic story’.
The cousin recalled her father going to the morgue to identify Mr Natoli’s dad, who ran a fruit shop in Geelong, 55 years ago.
‘These things tend to stick in your mind,’ she said.
‘It was a tragic story.’
Another relative said Mr Natoli’s death ‘was truly horrible.’
‘Robert and his sister have had a troubled life,’ they said.
It is believed the siblings’ mother also died when they were young.
Another cousin, who also did not want to be named said the siblings had ‘always been together’ after both parents had died.
The cousin said the last time she saw the pair was 40 years ago at her own wedding.
‘We felt really bad for them as they were orphans. They always tended to live together, and that is about all I knew,’ she said.
It is believed the pair never got married or had children.
Another woman wishing to remain anonymous said she believed their tragic childhood had impacted the second part of their lives.
‘I don’t know if recluse is the right word, but they did keep to themselves. For their life to end up that way, it is awful. It is not right,’ she said.
A powerful image has emerged of a young Mr Natoli at a Melbourne school, humanising the man people weren’t aware of until last week.
The picture from 1964 shows a smiling, happy-looking boy standing at the back of a class photo.
It is believed Mr Natoli was born on January 4, 1948, and worked as a caravan outfitter when he was younger.
Mr Natoli had lived in Geelong for over four decades after being in Melbourne for a while, and attended Croydon Park Public School at one stage.
The Department of Housing unit he siblings shared. It is believed Mr Natoli was dead for five years before his remains were found
There are now plans to have his remains buried in the same cemetery where his dad’s headstone resides in the Geelong Eastern Cemetery.
A humble plaque, without birth or death dates, has already been placed at the site.
A coroner is investigating the exact cause of how Mr Natoli died. Last February, a death notice just stated he ‘passed away in Geelong’.
His sister, Maree, had been interviewed by Geelong detectives and released without charge in December 2022 after forensic specialists in biohazard suits retrieved what was left of Mr Natoli.
In a heartbreaking video interview with Maree, taken by a concerned citizen after she returned to her locked public housing property, she was seen sitting behind a mountain of rubbish.
‘I’ve never been married, no children, no partner, no nothing,’ Maree said.
‘I used to have family but now mum and dad have passed away. I haven’t got anybody now. And my aunties as well. And uncles. I have cousins.’
Asked if she had any siblings, Maree said that she had none.
‘No. No I haven’t,’ she exclaimed sadly.
Maree sits among the garbage strewn through her garage in the hours after her brother was found rotting inside
The woman who captured the video, and asked to remain anonymous, told Daily Mail Australia that Maree spent the next three days sweltering in her garage.
‘Marie rocked up later that night after being arrested and we called the (housing) department straight away and they came and told her she wasn’t allowed at the house, so she left. And then the next morning she was back again doing her garden and moving the bins,’ the woman said.
‘That’s when she was sitting under the carport and I thought someone was with her, she was talking to someone in the backyard, but no-one was there.’
The woman said Maree appeared to be in a good state and chatted happily about neighbourhood gossip from years earlier.
‘She would remember people’s names. She doesn’t have dementia because she could remember stuff that happened years ago… she was just having a normal conversation.’
