YouTuber Finds Nelly's Wildwood Mansion Is Still Abandoned

An alleged cult brought the 10,000-square-foot mansion in 2021, but no one seems to have moved in

Feb 2, 2024 at 9:22 am
Nelly's former mansion sold in 2021, but no one seems to have moved in yet.
Nelly's former mansion sold in 2021, but no one seems to have moved in yet. Realtor.com
Two years ago,  an alleged cult bought the crumbling Wildwood mansion previously owned by pop star Nelly.

But no one seems to have moved in yet. A YouTube explorer with a sizable following recently visited the sprawling mansion — and in his video, posted earlier this week, it still appears utterly abandoned.

The YouTuber who visited goes by BigBankz, describing himself as "just a 25-year-old dude from a small town in Oklahoma." Judging by recent videos he's posted, he seems to specialize in visiting giant suburban homes that for whatever reason have been abandoned — a description that fits Nelly's crumbling 10,000-square-foot former estate on Wildwood's western edge.

The video does not show how BigBankz made his way into the property, but suggests it was without keys or consent of the property owner.



Sergeant Tracy Panus, a spokeswoman for the St. Louis County Police, says that "trespassing on any private property could be an issue and lead to arrest." She says police have received just two recent calls about trespassing on site. In the first, recorded last August, officers in the City of Wildwood Precinct responded to a call for service for a burglar alarm and found an unlocked door. "A search of the home revealed it did appear to have been burglarized," she writes. "A keyholder/emergency contact for the residence did respond and stated nothing appeared out of place."

More recently, on January 9, police responded to a call for service for an open door at the residence. "A neighbor called and stated they observed a door to the residence standing open," she says. "Officers did not locate anything out of place nor evidence of a crime."

Property records show the Kingdom of God Global Church bought the mansion in September 2021. Church's leader David E. Taylor has made numerous wild claims, including being able to raise people from the dead.

The church also owns a $2.1 million mansion in Chesterfield. A project manager doing work on the house reported to the city of Chesterfield that the church had "20 to 30 people staying at the property zoned single family" and "a lot of shady things going on," including a drug and alcohol rehab center being operated out of the house. The reports from Chesterfield had led to some concerns by neighbors in Wildwood — but so far, their biggest nuisance may be the occasional YouTube star.

You can browse photos of the mansion the RFT obtained before its 2021 sale. Judging by BigBankz's video, it doesn't seem to have changed much.



Subscribe to Riverfront Times newsletters.

Follow us: Apple NewsGoogle News | NewsBreak | Reddit | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter | Or sign up for our RSS Feed