Friend opens up about man who torched home, killed himself

Greenwich police said today a local man intentionally set his house on fire before he committed suicide Tuesday, while he and his mother were inside. News 12 Connecticut spoke exclusively with state

News 12 Staff

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Oct 6, 2012, 1:41 AM

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Updated 4,358 days ago

Greenwich police said today a local man intentionally set his house on fire before he committed suicide Tuesday, while he and his mother were inside.

News 12 Connecticut spoke exclusively with state Representative Fred Camillo, who has known the victim, 42-year-old Dean Verboven, for years, and saw him day before he killed himself.

Rep. Camillo grew up with 42-year-old Dean Verboven, known to friends as "Duke", and said friends had planned an intervention with Verboven right around the time he killed himself.

The state representative says Verboven was engaged to be married and had spent years caring for his ill, wheelchair-bound mother.

The town's social services offices says they had been called by neighbors to check on Verboven's mother because they hadn't seen her leave the house for years.

Social service officials say they discovered a hoarding situation inside the home and had planned to return here on Tuesday, the day of the tragedy.

M.E.: Old Greenwich man killed himself after torching home