Missing Detroit Man Found in Trash Can Behind Home Months After Disappearing

A Detroit man that's been missing since late January was recently found. Where he was found shocked family, neighbors, and even the police. He was found in a trash can in his own backyard months after he vanished.

I remember hearing about 76-year-old Walter Dansby back in January when he first went missing. I just figured it was another elderly man that wandered off and would eventually be found somewhere in or around his neighborhood. Unfortunately, that just wasn't the case.

Dansby's family filed a missing person's report with the Detroit Police when he first went missing. Investigators searched his home but came up empty handed. It's unclear if they checked the garbage cans during their initial search.

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He was discovered by a neighbor that smelled something decomposing outside. That neighbor called the police who eventually traced the odor to a garbage can that was in Dansby's backyard.

Deputy Chief Marlon Wilson:

A neighbor in the area smelled an off odor he went to investigate called us and we did unfortunately find a victim wrapped in a blanket in the large container in the rear of the location.

According to Fox 2 Detroit, the cause of death is unknown as is the person who killed him and put him in the garbage can.

Right now we are asking the community to provide us with any information the smallest bit of information they might think won't help could lead to something bigger.

It's heartbreaking to think that someone could throw another human away like that as if he was a piece of trash. I can't imagine what the family is going through right now.

The neighbors say that he was always sitting on his porch...and then one day, he wasn't.