Agnes and William Wedell found dead at luxury Manhattan apartment in mystery circumstances. 95 year old woman lived with 64 year old actor son in luxury Chelsea residence.
He even went so far as to mask the smell of her rotting corpse with fabric freshener …
A 95 year old woman and her 64-year-old actor son were both found dead inside their luxury Manhattan apartment after decades of living together according to reports.
Agnes Wedell, 95, and her son, William Wedell were found deceased after cops showed up at the mother and son’s ‘luxury’ home at Chelsea on Saturday to conduct a wellness check after relatives hadn’t heard from the pair and had grown concerned.
Police arrived at the mother and son’s residence, The Tate building on W. 23rd St. near 10th Ave. about 2:20 p.m. Saturday, only to find the actor son dead in a bedroom and his 95-year-old mother dead on a couch in another part of the home where the couple had lived together for decades.
‘They were kind of like the mother and son that were connected at the hip,’ Julianna Wedell, 61, Agnes’ daughter and William’s sister, told via the nydailynews.
Investigators believe Agnes died first because her body had started to decompose, police sources told via the New York Post.
The medical examiner believes that the mom was dead for at least a week and her son likely for two days, according to law-enforcement sources, The Post reported.
William had a history of heavy drinking and investigators were still trying to determine if that played any role in his death. Police did not suspect foul play, the sources said.
It remained unclear if either mother or son had discernible physical wounds.
‘They’ve lived together in that apartment for about 20, 25 years,’ Julianna said. ‘They had a very quiet, almost hermit-like life.’
Her sister called police after she hadn’t heard from William in a while.
‘My mother was 95. Last time my sister was in contact with my brother, he said she was sleeping more, not eating as much,’ Julianna added.
They suspect Agnes died of natural causes, given her age, but William’s death remains a mystery. Julianna said her mom had been unwell for about a month.
‘With him, we still don’t know,’ Julianna said. ‘That came as a shock, because he didn’t have any health issues that I was aware of.’
She didn’t know if COVID could have factored into either of their deaths.
‘He never mentioned it. When he spoke to my sister, he wasn’t coughing or mentioning any issues,’ Julianna told the nydailynews. ‘He was tending to my mother, doing the shopping and all that, so maybe he was exposed. We really don’t know.’
Febreze fabric freshener bottles were found throughout the apartment and several bottle of Tylenol were recovered from the son’s room.
William last texted Christine earlier this month about their mom’s condition.
‘We were checking in — ‘How’s mom, are you healthy?’’ Juliana recalled. ‘She was watching movies, sleeping a lot, eating less. To me and my sister, it wasn’t alarming. I thought maybe she just wasn’t really hungry.’
The sisters became concerned when their brother stopped responding to texts.
William moved to New York from Illinois about 40 years ago to pursue his aspirations of becoming an actor and his mother followed about a decade later, Julianna said.
He landed small roles in Woody Allen’s “Crimes and Misdemeanors,” and the Nicolas Cage romantic comedy “It Could Happen to You,’ and did enough work to get his Screen Actor’s Guild card, she said.
‘Once he moved to New York, there was no way to pry him away from New York. He became a diehard New Yorker,’ Julianna said. ‘He was very proud of his accomplishments, trying to do the acting. It’s hard to get noticed.’
She added, ‘The last few years he’s kind of been tending to my mom.’
Agnes worked for the Union Pacific railroad, transferring to the company’s New York City office when she moved, then retired in either the late 1980s or early 1990s, and worked temp jobs as a secretary for a variety of different companies.
‘She was one of those people who wanted to stay busy all the time,’ Julianna Wedell said.
The city Medical Examiner is slated to conduct an autopsy on both mother and son to determine how they died. No foul play is suspected.
