HAMPTON BAYS, N.Y. -- An elderly man's body was found in his home more than a year after his death, with the television still on and his features mummified thanks to the dry air inside the home, the medical examiner's office said.

Vincenzo Ricardo, 70, apparently died of natural causes, according to Dr. Stuart Dawson, Suffolk County's deputy chief medical examiner. Southampton Town police found Ricardo's body this week when they responded to a report of burst pipes at his home on Wakeman Road.

He was found sitting in a chair in front of the television set, as though he were watching it.

Ricardo's wife died years ago, and he lived alone. Newsday reported that Ricardo, who built the two-story house, had emigrated from Italy and worked in construction.

The coroner said he hadn't been heard from since December 2005, and nobody sounded the alarm. Mail had piled up, but then it stopped being delivered, Newsday reported.

Neighbor Diane Devon said residents at a gathering in January remarked that they hadn't seen him in some time, but they didn't think to check on him.

Neighbors said they had tried to keep an eye on Ricardo, who had diabetes and had become blind in his 50s. But since his house was up a long driveway and could not be seen from the street, they did not always know what he was doing, they told the Long Island newspaper.

"The word going around was that he was in a home," neighbor Pat Boyle told Newsday.

Another neighbor, April Cowden, told Newsday she would occasionally read Ricardo's mail to him, pay his bills and buy him groceries. When he began to demand more of her time in the summer of 2005, she said, they had a falling out. "I needed to go to work [one day], and he wanted me to stay," said Cowden, 37.

About a month later, Cowden told Newsday, she saw an ambulance at his house. When she saw the mail pile up, Cowden thought he was in the hospital.