Miami Man Says Girlfriend's Body, Found In Closet, Is Blow-Up Doll

A man was arrested Saturday after officers discovered the mutilated body of his girlfriend in his Miami home.

Miami-Dade Police says they were called out to a house at Northwest 23rd Avenue and 62nd street for reports of a foul odor. 

Upon arrival, officers discovered the body of 52-year-old Deanna Clendinen in a closet, covered under several sheets. 

Despite the discovery, Jerome Wright, 32, denied that there was a body in his closet, instead choosing to tell police that "whatever was in his room was not real," according to an arrest affidavit.

Wright told police that the body was a "life-sized blow up doll with real flesh" that he bought off the internet. 

According to police, Wright's mother said Clendinen, who frequently stayed at the home, was the only visitor in the last week. Wright's mother said she hadn't seen Clendinen since she went into Wright's bedroom last Tuesday.

A few days later, Wright told police, her son ran out of his room complaining of stomach pain. When she asked her son about the foul smell coming from his room, he told her that he "saw a rat in his room, had diarrhea and the dog defecated on the floor."

Wright's mother pointed out that her son "smelled like blood." Later that afternoon, she smelled a foul odor coming from a garbage can in the kitchen, so she took out the trash without looking at what was inside the trash bag.

Wright's mother told Local 10 News reporter Carlos Suarez that her son has suffered from schizophrenia since he was 15. She said he has been hospitalized under the Baker Act dozens of times.

He had recently been placed on probation for an aggravated battery case involving the same woman. 

The victim's cause of death is still pending.


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