Emmy-Winning Set Designer Found Dead in Her Home After Reported Missing

Evelyn Sakash, an Emmy-winning set designer, was found dead in her New York City home Tuesday under a pile of garbage. She was 66. According to a New York City Police Department missing persons report, she was last seen on Sept. 30, 2020.

Sakash was found lying on her kitchen floor under garbage, a police spokesperson told the Associated Press on Wednesday. She was discovered by her sister, who hired a cleaning crew to clean out Sakash’s home in College Point, Queens to look for her, police said. Sakash’s sister and the cleaning crew discovered Sakash around 4:15 p.m. Tuesday.

The New York Medical Examiner’s Office told E! News Sakash died of natural causes as a result of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. Madeline O’Connell Hartling, who worked with Sakash on Orange Is The New Black, called Sakash a “kind, loving, and generous friend and sister.” Hartling established a GoFundMe fund, which raised over $6,000 to help Sakash’s family with funeral expenses.

“This is just devastating,” Brown told the New York Daily News. “She had a full life. She was so extraordinarily talented. She was a brilliant mind … I don’t want my sister to be remembered like that, like the way she was found.” Brown said she was not sure of the circumstances that led to her sister’s death. “This was clearly in effect for a long time,” Brown said. “She sometimes kept people at bay. The headline says ‘Queens hoarder,’ but that’s not who she is.”

One neighbor told the Daily News that Sakash fell into a “downward spiral” after her mother died in April 2020. “She became so much more withdrawn and looked sick,” the neighbor said. “I think that’s when she started to pick up more of the hoarding… I went into her house years ago and it was normal.” Photos of the apartment from Wednesday show a sink filled with dirty dishes and trash piled high in the rooms. Sakash did have dogs and cats, which police discovered during one of at least two visits during the seven months Sakash was missing. However, police did not find her body during those trips.

According to Sakash’s IMDb page, her Hollywood career began in the mid-1980s, working as a production designer, scenic artist, art director, and set decorator. Her last credited work was as a production designer on the 2016 TV movie Once in a Lifetime. In 2003, she won a Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction/Set Decoration/Scenic Design on Between the Lions. She earned a nomination in the same category the following year for Between the Lions as well.