Body Found at Home of Missing Mouseketeer

Dennis Day was reported missing 8 months ago
By Neal Colgrass,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 6, 2019 3:40 PM CDT
Body Found at Home of Missing Mouseketeer
Dennis Day.   (Phoenix Police Department)

The case of a missing Mouseketeer may be breaking wide open. Law enforcement agencies began searching the Oregon home of former child actor Dennis Day on Thursday and found a body there the next day, the Medford Mail Tribune reports. It remains unidentified, but could be a big development in a case that appeared stagnant for months. The 76-year-old was reported missing last July by husband Ernest Caswell, who lives in assisted care and suffers from memory problems. That hampered the case, Lt. Jeff Price tells Fox News, as did the couple's reclusive lifestyle: "They didn’t leave the house," he says. "...They weren’t social and if you saw the house you would see that they didn’t leave the house. It's in very bad shape—very, very poor shape."

Possible developments also appeared to founder. Day left his dog with a friend before vanishing, which seemed unusual for him, but police said no more about it. Day's car turned up 200 miles away with two people who said Day let them use it, but a search of the vehicle turned up nothing. An initial search of the couple's rural home in Phoenix, Oregon, fared no better. Some suspicion has fallen on Day's roommate, who had his bank card, but Day's bank account appears untouched, per USA Today. Even Day's family only learned of the disappearance in December after his nephew saw it on the news. A Mouseketeer in the 1950s, Day was once one of the most famous child actors on American television. (See who Day apparently accused of assaulting him.)

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