By Richard Weizel

MILFORD, Connecticut (Reuters) - A Connecticut man who authorities believe was living for months under the same roof with his mother's decomposing corpse has been charged with the woman's murder, police said on Friday.

John Waszynski, 59, of the Hartford suburb of Wethersfield, has been charged with cruelty and the murder of his 86-year-old mother, Krystyna Waszynski. He was arraigned Friday afternoon at the Superior Court in New Britain, and bail was set at $1 million, according to a court spokeswoman.

The situation was brought to the attention of police earlier this month, when the man's brother alerted police he had been prevented from entering the house and feared something was wrong.

The woman's body was so badly decomposed that it took days to make a positive identification. The local medical examiner has since ruled the death a homicide due to "neck compression and blunt trauma of the upper extremity."

Wethersfield Police Chief James Cetran said John Waszynski had been living with his mother's body "for some time."

Officers had previously been called to the home following complaints of a man walking naked outside, Cetran said. Police last visited the home last September but no arrests were made.

Neighbors of the ranch style, single-family home said they had little contact with John Waszynski and never saw his mother.

"I never even knew a woman lived there. I never saw her once," said neighbor Kimberly Robinson, who has lived on the street for 10 years. "But everyone thought he was strange. You just got a creepy feeling from him."

John Waszynski inherited the house from his father, Julian Waszynski, in January 2006, town records show.

(Editing by Edith Honan and James Dalgleish)