Until Death Do Us Part

Elena Hoyos when she was alive

Born in 1909, Elena Hoyos had no idea that her beauty would attract the unwelcome advances of a man twice her age. During the roaring twenties Elena was enjoying all life had to offer. She often attended dances at the Cuban Club, wearing her signature red rose behind her right ear. In the late nineteen twenties tuberculosis was the leading cause of death in Key West. The horrible illness claimed the lives of one of Elena’s sisters and eventually her parents. In April of 1930, after receiving x-rays at the marine hospital, Elena discovered she too had contracted the illness. While at the hospital she was treated by a fifty year old technician by the name of Carl von Cosel. He claimed to be a German count and a trained medical doctor, but he was neither a count nor a doctor, but something much more sinister. The day Carl met Elena an unnatural obsession consumed Von Cosel.

He was determined to have Elena as his wife and in her desperate state to escape the ravages of tuberculosis, Elena saw Carl as the only man who could save her. But ultimately there was no miracle cure and Elena died on October 25th, 1931 at the age of

Elena's decomposed body

twenty two. Elena was buried in Key West Cemetery. Two years later Von Cosel built an elaborate mausoleum for his beloved Elena and with her families permission had her exhumed and placed inside. Von Cosel visited the mausoleum that held the corpse of the woman he considered to be his bride, even though they were never legally married. Every day for eighteen months, Von Cosel visited Elena until one day he decided to steal Elena’s body and make her his bride at last. According to the memoirs of Carl Von Cosel, the ghost of Elena was with him every step of the way as he wrestled her decaying body from the cemetery. He returned to his home with his prize and painstakingly peeled back Elena’s rotting shroud and began the laborious task of rebuilding her putrefied flesh. Through a series of pumps and chemicals Von Cosel was able to slow the process of decay that gave him the time he needed to reconstruct Elena’s skin and other parts of her anatomy so their union could be consummated.

Elena's reconstructed body

Rumors began circulating around Key West that Elena’s body was no longer in her mausoleum. Elena’s sister confronted the count and demanded she be taken to her sister’s casket because she did not believe her body was still there. Von Cosel agreed to show the sister where Elena was and took her to his home where she found the reconstructed corpse of her sister.

On October 5th, 1940 the body of Elena Hoyos was seized by authorities and Von Cosel taken into custody. A viewing of Elena’s body was held at the Lopez funeral home where 8,500 people came to see the body. School was even cancelled for the day so children could witness this “curiosity.” During this time a hearing was convened to decide what crimes Von Cosel had committed. It was decided that he had committed the willful and wanton destruction of a tomb. However, he was released as the statute of limitations had expired on that particular crime. In order to protect Elena’s corpse from the clutches of Von Cosel, Elena’s body was secretly interned at the Key West Cemetery. Only a select few to this day know where the body is buried. Heartbroken, the count left Key West in 1941. Two hours after his departure a mysterious explosion ripped through the cemetery, destroying the mausoleum that once held the remains of his beloved Elena.

Many locals report hearing unnatural cries and unexplained apparitions roaming behind the locked gates of Key West’s Cemetery. Over one hundred thousand souls are interred in the cemetery, and many, like Elena, have no marker, albeit for a different reason. So if you should be wondering the grounds of the Key West Cemetery and catch the whiff of a rose or see the image of a beautiful young woman show compassion, for this woman found little peace in life or in death.