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HOLLY HILL, Fla. -- Like a scene out of a horror movie, a Holly Hill married couple raised their 4- and 6-year-old boys in the same house with a corpse until Halloween 2013, when cops moved in with warrants for their arrests on drug charges -- at that time unaware the body was in the residence as well.
The mother, Nicole Scalise, 32, pleaded no contest to a host of charges in February, including child neglect, failure to report a death and possession of a schedule 2 substance. She was sentenced March 25 to three years in prison, followed by five years of drug offender probation.
Her husband, Todd LaDuke, 39, was sentenced Nov. 26 -- the day before Thanksgiving -- to five years in prison, having pled no contest earlier to felony child neglect and failing to report a dead body.
As part of a plea bargain, prosecutors dropped a drug possession charge against him. But as part of the sentence, LaDuke must undergo drug offender probation for five years after he's released from prison.
A locked partition separated the two adults and their young sons from the decomposing body of the homeowner on Center Avenue, that of 33-year-old Tiffany Kain, who had been dead about a month when cops made the grisly discovery.
The couple claimed they didn't know she was dead -- claiming they did did they know she was even still in the home since the bedroom where her body was found by cops was locked.
As to whether they had smelled the body, the two defendants told the court through their attorneys that since the house was often littered with dog feces and trash, such a smell would not have stood out any differently.
Kain, who had spina bifida and used an electric scooter to get around, had been visited monthly by a social services agency contracted out by the state Agency for Persons with Disabilities.
Agency officials called police after they could not make contact with Kain, leading to the raid on the house on Halloween. How she died has not been determined, though it's believed it was related to her health.
Agency officials called police after they could not make contact with Kain, leading to the raid on the house on Halloween. How she died has not been determined, though it's believed it was related to her health.
The house of horrors that squatters turned Tiffany Kain's home into comes in at No. 67 in the HeadlineSurfer.com countdown of the top 100 stories of 2014.
Scalise and LaDuke acknowledged to cops they spent Kain’s Social Security money as well as her food stamps, though for how long was not easily determined.
The Department of Children & Families took custody of the two young boys after the arrests that Halloween night. The house was demolished in January 2014.
Tiffany Kain, shown here from photos on her Facebook page is remembered by friends like Tina Turner, who wrote this passage in her memory on her Facebook page.
Friends have kept Tiffany Kain's memory alive on her Facebook page with mementos, photos, poems and prayers. Here is a link to Kane's Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/tiffany.kain.9.
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The HeadlineSurfer.com Countdown of the Top 100 Local Stories of 2014...
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The Headline Surfer® Countdown of the Top 100 Stories of 2014, is sponsored by Edgewater Towing & Myron's Auto Service of Edgewater, FL. 