When 22-year-old Maria Elena Milagro de Hoyos went to the hospital in Key West for tuberculosis, her attending physician, Carl Tanzler, immediately fell in love with her.
Unfortunately, she died after several months under his care, and he quickly became infatuated with her corpse.
He secretly took her body back to his house. When her skin began to fall off, he replaced it with French plaster. He jury-rigged a system of wires and hangers to maintain her skeleton.
When her eyes decayed, he replaced them with glass eyes. He filled her rotting body with rags to maintain its original form. Finally, he blasted a steady stream of perfume to cover up the stench of decay. He often kept her in his bed.
Rumors began to spread that Tanzler was living with a corpse. He was sometimes seen through his windows, dancing with the dead body.
This macabre situation would go on for 7 years — before it was uncovered by the victim’s sister.
After the corpse was taken away from him, Tanzler built a life-sized effigy of Elena, using her death mask as the face. He continued living with this effigy until his death. Rumor has it that he died with the effigy in his arms.