Sealed apartment where NYC woman with dementia’s body was found feared a ‘horror show’

A 92-year-old woman with dementia and her nephew’s caretaker each suffered cruel, tragic ends — dying within feet of each other in her two-bedroom Upper West Side pad some neighbors feared has now become a “horror show.”

Alice Osman spent her life traveling the world before dementia made her a prisoner in her own mind, dying alone in her co-op, with the body of her haunted, struggling nephew Steven Osman in the next room.

Both Osmans were found dead inside her ground-floor home at 370 Riverside Dr. in June, according to relatives, court papers, and officials.

Osman, 92, graduated Teachers College in 1959 and taught English to non-native speakers, working at Columbia University’s American Language Program in 1969, the school and another nephew, Mark Osman, said.

“She was a world traveler,” Mark Osman told The Post. “I think that’s one of the reasons she never got married because she liked to travel the world. I’ve seen pictures of her riding a camel, visiting different continents. She loved going to places that didn’t speak English.”

The elder Osman “lucked out,” landing her two-bedroom, roughly 1,500-square-foot pad at 370 Riverside Dr. decades ago, using it as her home base and at times, hosting younger relatives, Mark Osman said.

Similar apartments now sell for $1 million or more, records show.

She often flew by herself to her Lake Worth, Fla., condo just south of West Palm Beach, he added.

Her family didn’t realize Alice was struggling until she started getting lost in her longtime neighborhood and fell a year behind on her monthly maintenance charges, her nephew said.

That’s when Mark’s brother Steven, 63, a former lawyer who was also struggling with drug and alcohol addiction and was tormented by the death of his best friend — NYPD Officer John Perry, who perished trying to rescue people in the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks — stepped in.

The pair lived together, but Steven’s unwelcome penchant for collecting and storing cans and bottles from the street inside the apartment, caused problems with management, according to Mark and a doorman at the 16-story building.

Doorman Ermal Milori made the wretched find on June 28, after arriving for his afternoon shift and noticing a foul odor, he told The Post.

After checking the lobby, he entered the Osman’s home to find Alice dead, face up on a bed, and her nephew — whom Milori hadn’t seen in four days — dead in another room.

“He died first, in his bed asleep,” said Mark Osman, “and then my aunt, she laid down and went to sleep and never woke up.”

The Osmans died of natural causes, the city Medical Examiner told The Post, including hypertensive and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease.

But nearly five months after the sad demise of the Osmans, the apartment is still sealed shut.

A “DO NOT ENTER” sign across the door, and management has gone to the Manhattan Supreme Court asking a judge to force the NYPD to give them access so they can clean, remove garbage, and fumigate, according to the litigation.

“Since the bodies were removed, Plaintiff has received multiple complaints from other residents about a strong foul smell emanating from the apartment,” they said in court papers, noting vermin and roaches are believed to have set in.

The situation “is just an unfortunate set of circumstances,” said attorney Peter Livingston, who represents 370 Riverside.

But a lawyer for Alice Osman insisted 370 Riverside was wrong to seek access to the apartment — and had cut her family out of its bid to get inside.

“They should not have access to the apartment before we have access,” said attorney Yoram Nachimovsky, who also knew Steven Osman for decades. “To leave us out of the case is totally inappropriate.”

The family just got the remains of their loved ones within the past two weeks, and only received death certificates last month, he said, finally giving them clearance to seek to have Mark Osman appointed in Surrogate Court as the executor of Alice and Steven’s estates.

“Alice was an intellectual, a very sweet lady, very old school, very dignified,” Nachimovsky said of the elder Osman in her better years, adding that Steven “was taking care of her hand and foot. He was in my office probably a couple days before he passed. It was so unexpected.”

He disputed claims the apartment was dirty or causing problems, noting he’d hired professional cleaners about a month before Alice and Steven’s death and was prepared to do so again.

“I think the fact that [370 Riverside] started a case to get into the apartment without us is an indication they have their own ax to grind,” Nachimovsky added, noting the Osmans are current on the rent and maintenance. “You want to go into her apartment without even mentioning it to her lawyer? There’s something very wrong about that.”

The NYPD can’t open the home without authority from the Surrogate’s Court or other authority, the department said in a statement.

“She was a nice lady,” one resident who declined to give their name said of Alice Osman.

“It’s probably a horror show inside,” said another resident.

“It’s a very difficult time for everyone,” another resident said.