I Think My 80 Year Old Dad Is Dead Alone In His Home. I’m Not Sure Of My Next Steps.

So this is a little hard to write but not as hard as it probably should. I wanna provide some context but not focus on the wrong details so I’ll keep it like this.

My dad and I have a complicated relationship where I went 6 years without seeing him. We talked very little over this time. He was my sole parent. So I’ve been doing the no-contact thing and it’s been great. This is an abusive and dangerous person. I had some conflicted feelings toward even visiting him but he said he wanted my help with his end of life plans. I visited him on November 10. I was supposed to visit again for Thanksgiving but couldn’t. So I last heard from him that day. Someone who has a contentious relationship with him has been reaching out to me saying they haven’t heard from him and he always talks to them. I’ve tried to contact him and it hasn’t worked.

I called the nonemergency number and told them the details. They called me and said the property where he is at is all gated up and there’s nothing they can do unless someone has a key. (This sounds stupid to me but whatever) No one has a key. They told me they have had fire department come out to homes and the person ended up being asleep. I reiterated details and also stated , though calmly, I think he is dead. they reiterated they couldn’t do anything. I decided to give another call asking an officer to give me a call regarding legal advice regarding this and then thought to post here.

So here’s the situation, I think he died. I’m not close with him by any means but he has no other family and I recognize the responsibility may be on me to take care of this. I’ve been thinking about it heavily and the main thing that comes to mind is I’m thinking about a biohazard removal service. The thing is , I do not want to be the person to discover his body. As would be the case for anyone, it would be too graphic and I just have this strong fear that I’d be confronted with a smell that would haunt me for my life.

I live 6 hours away. What I could do is make my way up there on Tuesday but it’s the holidays. Maybe I need to make it a priority to get there now? I just really don’t know what to do in this situation. Part of me wants nothing to do with it but I realize societal responsibilities. If anyone could point me in the right direction as for next steps, I’d appreciate it. And I’ll answer follow up questions as needed. Thank you.