A tragic and somewhat horrifying news story comes from the New York Daily News as Emmy-winning set designer Evelyn Sakash was found dead in her trash-filled Queens apartment after being missing for seven months. The body of the 66-year-old crafts person was found by her sister, Ellen Brown, under an avalanche of trash seven months after her sudden disappearance when Brown was visiting to empty the apartment of said trash with a professional cleaner, according to the newspaper.
Sakash won a 2003 Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction/Set Decoration/Scenic Design for her work on the children’s television series Between the Lions, working in movies, television and theater during her long career. Besides working for Disney and MTV, Sakash also spent time working on the series, Billions and Orange is the New Black.
According to a neighbor, she fell into a downward spiral after her mother’s death last April, telling the News, “She became so much more withdrawn and looked sick,” the neighbor said. “I think that’s when she started to pick up more of the hoarding . . . I went into her house years ago and it was normal.”
Laura DiDio, a family friend, said on Facebook that cops with K-9 dogs searched Sakash’s home on two occasions over the last few months but somehow did not find her. Sakash’s friends had raised over $5,000 via GoFundMe to hire investigates to help the NYPD discover what happened to Sakash before her body was discovered.
Sakash died of natural causes, succumbing to arteriosclerotic cardiovascular disease, according to the New York City Medical Examiner’s office.
Friends, co-workers and loved ones all shared nice things about Sakash’s talent and loving nature.
Brown told the paper, “This is just devastating. She had a full life. She was so extraordinarily talented. She was a brilliant mind … I don’t want my sister to be remembered like that, like the way she was found.”
The Daily News story includes a number of pictures of Sakash’s home by Carla Roman, but we’re only sharing a few of them below.
