Two years after her death, Carl dug up Maria’s decomposing body, placed it in a toy wagon and transported it to a makeshift lab.
Carl Tanzler wanted more from his relationship. He wasn’t satisfied with the nightly visits to Maria’s mausoleum. In order to satisfy his desire, he decided to dig out Maria’s decomposing body.
He transformed an old airplane into a makeshift lab, where he used plaster of Paris, wires, mortician’s wax and glass eyes to bring Maria back to life.
After transforming Maria’s body into a mummified wax figure, Carl Tanzler took his prized possession back home; where he shared the same bed with her. Over the next several years, Carl lived a life of absence from society. He withdrew himself from communicating with others and spent a considerable amount of time at home, where he took care of Maria’s corpse.
He used wire hangers to maintain Maria’s body structure.
Maria’s decomposing body was losing its structure. In order to maintain her body structure, Carl Tanzler used wire hangers. He also replaced the wax constantly and used several types of disinfectants as well as oils to hide the foul stench. This went on for seven years before anyone noticed the unusual pattern in Carl. He often purchased women’s clothing, perfume and other necessities for Maria. Carl lived a satisfying life as he had his dream woman by his side day and night.
Everything was going perfect for Carl until Maria’s family found a connection with his strange behavior.
Maria’s family started looking into Carl’s odd behavior. A man who went every night to visit his beloved’s grave suddenly stopped visiting without any explanation. Apart from that, he was buying women’s clothing and perfume but had no relation with any other woman.
A local man who passed by Carl Tanzler’s house noticed Carl dancing with a giant doll; which added further suspicion. Maria’s sister began to hear rumors that Tanzler was keeping Maria’s corpse in his house. She became fed up with the gossip and decided to confront Carl at his house in October of 1940. Carl Tanzler calmly let her in, where Maria’s sister almost fainted. She walked in to witness the sight of a wax figure that appeared to be of Maria. Convinced that something was wrong, she ran out and informed authorities immediately. When authorities arrived at Tanzler’s house, they seized the life-sized doll and arrested Tanzler on suspicion.
To everyone’s shock, the life-sized doll was later revealed to be Maria’s rotted corpse. Authorities decided to perform an autopsy on the body, only to reveal that Tanzler had actually reconstructed her body with several parts. They even discovered that Tanzler also reconstructed a makeshift genitalia using paper tubes.
Maria’s body after authorities recovered it from Carl Tanzler’s house.
Carl Tanzler was taken into custody and faced trial. The morbid story caught attention all over the country. Maria’s body was kept on display for the public and then reburied in an unmarked grave. In 1944, Carl Tanzler moved to Pasco County, Florida where he still couldn’t cope with being away from his obsession. He initially requested Maria’s body to be returned but was denied by the court. To satisfy his obsession, Carl Tanzler used a death mask to create a life-sized effigy (a representation of a specific person in the form of sculpture or some other three-dimensional medium) of Hoyos. He lived with it until his death on July 3, 1952. His body was only recovered from the floor of his home three weeks after his death.
