Man dead in apartment for more than a month

For 38 days, the man's body lay inside the first-floor apartment in a Charlestown housing development, even as crew members from a television show, maintenance staffers, property managers, and fellow residents walked just steps away.

Yesterday, acting on a tip, Boston police said they found the body of Michael Forrest, in his Carney Court apartment shortly after 8 a.m. The tipster, identified by officials familiar with the investigation as Charles Turner, told police he was with Forrest on Dec. 5 when Forrest died suddenly.

Turner, who is listed as homeless in a police report, said he had wrapped the body and stuffed it underneath the bed.

"Oh, my God! I can't believe that. That's sad," said neighbor Betty Sierra, who said the hallway routinely smells bad so she did not notice anything unusual recently. "I can't believe that. That's shocking."

Residents said Forrest was a newer neighbor, having moved into the three-story unit inside the Bunker Hill development in late summer or early fall.

Sierra and her husband, Eduardo DeJesus, recalled Forrest as an ami able man who seemed in bad health. They said he took care of his apartment and the first-floor hallway, where they would often see him sweeping the area while smoking a cigar.

Yesterday, officials opened the door of Forrest's apartment and a foul odor flowed through the hallway.

Lydia Agro, spokeswoman for the Boston Housing Authority, said yesterday that a crew filming scenes for a TNT television pilot, "Bunker Hill," was in the development Dec. 10. Crew members and BHA staffers walked through the first floor of the building, passing by Forrest's apartment.

"There were a lot of people moving in and out of the hallway because they were shooting a movie," Agro said.

She said a BHA manager was also in the hallway on Dec. 23 but did not notice anything amiss. A janitor and a plumber have been in the building in the past several days, and they neither saw nor smelled anything out of the ordinary, she said.

"People were in the hallway on a number of occasions" since Dec. 5, Agro said. "We didn't get any complaints. None of the staff people noticed anything to make them feel that something needed to be looked into."

BHA officials described the deceased as "a very nice gentleman" who had not caused any problems after moving in. They said federal privacy laws banned them from identifying their tenant.

Turner, who made the disclosures, was arraigned yesterday in Roxbury Municipal Court, where he pleaded not guilty to drug possession and trespassing charges. Bail was set at a total of $12,250 in cash on old and new charges.

Jake Wark, spokesman for Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley, said investigators are waiting for the state medical examiner's office to determine how and when he died, and to confirm his identity.

"The veracity of Mr. Turner's statements also remain under investigation," Wark said. "When we have a fuller picture of each, we may make revisions as to the charges."