MCCRACKEN COUNTY, Ky. — A house that's long been at the center of controversy may soon be coming down. But first, family members gave Local 6 an exclusive look inside.
"It's a bit overwhelming but thats just who she was," said Eritrea Cooper, niece of the home's owner Teresa Bolden.
McCracken County's so-called "pallet house" has been the source of frustration for neighbors and a target of county building inspectors for decades.
But this summer, Bolden agreed to bring her home up to code.
The tragic irony is police say it was someone Bolden hired to help her fix up her property who murdered her last month.
Bolden's family shared their plans for the pallet house with us and also for the first time allowed us inside, something not even they were allowed to do while Bolden was alive.
"You can take a peek," said Donelson said. "You can go on up through the top of it if you want to."
Teresa Bolden's brother and cousins didn't mind letting us in but getting in was no easy task. Luckily, we had a small tour guide, 13-year-old Abijah Williams, Bolden's nephew.
He's one of the only family members small enough to take us through the piles of Bolden's belongings, stacked nearly to the roof.
"To your right there's an open hole where you can walk out," Abijah said.
We tried to follow Abijah but didn't get far. The passageway to Bolden's bedroom was too tight, so we turned around.
"Shed right there with two cars in it," Bolden's brother George Donelson said. "There was a shed back there with two cars in it. We tore them down."
Back outside, Donelson showed us all the clean-up work he's already done, including getting rid of seven old cars.
"They've been here so long, you can see where the gas tank fell off one of them," he said. "That's the gas tank on one of them right there."
He said the work out here is never-ending.
"I got all that cleaned out, back room I done burned," he said.
Donelson said in life, his sister would never let him help with anything, especially not her house.
"I know her from growing up," he said. "I know she didn't play."
He can only laugh about it now but admitted he'll be sad when his sister's house comes down.
"She would never give up this spot," he said.
Bolden's family told us they don't have the money to tear the house down but feel pressured to get it done and have the property cleaned.
Bolden was at the center of a struggle over her home on Ogden Landing Road and local building codes.
She made significant changes with the help of some volunteers and was set to have a final inspection March 17.
Ronald Lynn, 36, of Brookport, Illinois, faces first degree murder charges in Bolden's death.
Investigators say he hit Bolden with a shovel in a dispute over money.
