Deaths leaving unwanted family homes vacant in Youngstown, attracting thieves

YOUNGSTOWN

The two men charged with breaking into a dead man’s West Side house Wednesday morning told police they were his relatives, and also complained of the smell that still lingers from the man’s decomposing body which was found last month.

Spiro Frangos, 38, of Kennedy Road, Lowellville and Joseph Duarte, 31, of Youngstown, are in the Mahoning County jail on charges of breaking and entering after they were caught in a truck that had a stove from the home.

Jerry O’Hara, head of the Garden District Neighborhood Association, lives down the street from the home and said the incident is something that is happening all too frequently on his block watch.

O’Hara said as older people die, their relatives either do not want their house or leave it to sit empty, which attracts thieves.

In the half-block where the home is located, there are six other vacant homes. A woman who lives two doors down told a reporter Thursday she has no idea someone in the home died and no one else in her house was awake at 11 a.m. to talk.

Read more about the situation in Friday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.