Woman woken by leaking corpse

A Modesto woman had to move out of her apartment when something horrible happened to her neighbour. Her upstairs neighbour died and no one knew for days... until she experienced it firsthand.

"It's been a total nightmare," says Sylvia Pena, Modesto resident. "I was sleeping on the couch... I was awakened by some drops that hit my face... I thought I was drooling," explained Sylvia. It wasn't drool or water dripping from her ceiling.

The drippings? Bodily fluids from the upstairs apartment. Her neighbour had died... his corpse sat there rotting, he was dead for days. The autopsy report found the 34-year old "likely overdosed"... His body was "moderately to severely decomposed." And over time, the decomposition allowed bodily fluids to leak, onto his floor, through the ceiling, eventually onto Sylvia and her things.



A biohazard team removed furniture and deodorized the place. But she says the smell of death lingered. It already had seeped into clothes, bedding and her mattress. She turned to her rental insurance company to get her pungent- smelling property replaced.

They put her up in a hotel for two weeks until she could move, but they refused to replace the contaminated contents. "Because my policy doesn't cover something so bizarre as this," says Sylvia. They sent her this letter, reading: "Unfortunately, the blood and bodily fluid damage to your contents is not one of the 17 named perils covered in your policy."

Perils like fire or lightning, windstorm, falling objects, even aircraft is covered but not bodily fluids. Farmers Insurance is now considering a national change to its policy.... adding "bodily fluids from death" as one of the perils they cover.

With news video discussing bodily fluids and insurance policies.