© POUGHKEEPSIE POLICE DEPARTMENTJoAnn Nichols went missing in 1985 at age 55. The case remained cold — until Friday, when her skeleton was discovered in her own home.
A sinister secret stashed inside the walls of a New York home has been exposed almost 30 years later.
Human remains were found sealed in a container and hidden behind a false basement wall in the home where James Nichols and his wife, JoAnn, had once lived in the Town of Poughkeepsie.
The remains are those of 55-year-old JoAnn Nichols, who was reported missing Dec. 21, 1985, the Dutchess County Medical Examiner confirmed Monday.
A contractor cleaning out the home, which has been vacant since December, made the chilling discovery.
JoAnn Nichols died from blunt force trauma to the head in what appears to be a homicide, Dutchess County Medical Examiner Dr. Kari Reiber told WABC-TV.
Dental records were used to identify the decomposed body - a complete skeleton.
Town police said the new forensic evidence is prompting them to continue the investigation.
But understanding what happened won't be easy: James Nichols died in December of natural causes at age 82, police said.
Neighbors also described him as having an extreme hoarding problem.
"He literally had seven or eight of those Dumpsters in his backyard also filled with stuff," neighbor Al Delaney told the Poughkeepsie Journal.
Homeowner Judy Wyskida said she would notice James Nichols sitting in his car outside of his home because he couldn't fit inside the house. That wasn't the only eccentric behavior he exhibited.
"We saw him drive past us one day and he had a dummy with a hat on in the passenger seat in the front of the car," said Wyskida, adding, "It was just very odd."
A family friend first reported JoAnn Nichols, a first-grade teacher, missing after she failed to show up for her beauty salon appointment.
James Nichols told police he last saw her that morning before he left for his job at IBM.
He said a typed note was left on their home computer.
"The note indicates some degree of depression, but it's not what I would consider a suicide letter," a detective later told the Journal in 1986.
James Nichols said he found his wife's car at a shopping mall the day after she vanished. He also gave an interview with the Journal and claimed to have spoken with her briefly on the morning of Christmas Eve.
When he asked her where she was, Nichols told the newspaper, she hung up.
"There's no reason to assume she's dead or alive, joined a group or run off with some other man. There are a thousand possibilities," he said at the time. "The pain is not knowing."
Police said there was no sign of foul play.
But former neighbors now look back at James Nichols' behavior and see it was a red flag.
"Ultimately, we all said he did it," Dolores Casella, 77, told the Journal. "We automatically all said that, 'He did something with her.'"
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