after completing a Dark Brotherhood quest I found Tova Shatter-Shield dead in her home while doing a quest for the Thieves' Guild chain... when I looted her (hey, she was already dead and I didn't do it... thieves loot like that, I swear) there was a copy of the Hjerim Key on her.

Hjerim is the house next door, one I already own and that has well... a history.

Is she just a friendly neighbor and was the key keeper for the steward or previous tennant? Random loots bugged and gave me something I already own?

It was just really interesting. The other interesting thing is that we can only have one copy of our house key, so I looted it off of her and saw it go into my inventory and then it was only still the one key.

lol

anyone else find something in a place where it just shouldn't have been?

Her daughter was the first victim of the Butcher, if I'm not mistaken, and she lived there. That's why it became his hideout.

I believe the first daughter who was murdered lived in Hjerim (that was her house)
When you killed the second daughter Tova commits suicide in despondency.

How did you buy the house without doing "Blood on the Ice"?

Where did the OP say that they hadn't done that quest?

It's a valid question though. You have to gain access to Hjerim during that quest and Tova is always the one person with the key to that house. I also had to loot it off her body, after she committed suicide, to further the "Blood on the Ice" quest (yes, yes, I also killed her 2nd daughter LOL).

You can also pick the lock, making it unnecessary to go anywhere near Tova.

You can get this quest by buying the house which gets you the key.
You can get the key by talking to or pick-pocketing Tova if she hasn't killed herself.
You can get the key by looting Tova after she's killed herself.

There are a lot of ways to start and finish this quest, which I suspect is why it's one of the most buggy.

You don't have to talk to Tova to get access. The first time I played I bought the house and found all that garbage inside.

I already have the key because I do own the house... that's why I didn't get a second copy of it. My question was about how the neighbor has a copy. Apparently Tova's daughter had it first. I'd never realized it was her home before it was the haunted and glitched possession of the city again. lol

And I've done blood on the ice... and I picked the lock to get in. I did say "the house that I own..." to my knowledge you can't own it without being a thane/stormcloak decorated officer. I do know you can buy the dumb house and THEN find out it's haunted... that particular stumble will never happen to me again.

My mistake then, I didn't know the lock was pickable. I thought you had to get the key from Tova.

It isn't, unless the Blood on the Ice quest resets it later on. But I did that quest recently, and the door is deffo "Key needed".

Tova commits suicide if you kill her second daughter in the DB quest line. Her first daughter was the previous owner of Hjerim.

Look out for hauntings in the night.

and people say that there is no cause and effect in Skyrim

One example doesn't disprove that statement

It does. When you are at the stage labeled 'Investigate the crime scene', or something like that, you'll end up following a trail that leads to Hjerim; when you reach the place the stage changes, and the lock becomes pick-able as you are now meant to have access. It starts key-locked because it's a player house and you're meant to have to buy those to get in, but in this case a quest script overrides that. It is a Master lock, though, so depending on your skill at the mini-game you may need a bunch of picks to get in if you go that route.

I steal from Hilde, she sends Thugs to teach me a leason. "cause and effect" I kill said thugs and take it out on her son Sven by killing him, she sends more "Thugs to take care of me" more cause and Effect. Its there maybe not as deep as it could have or should have been but its there.

Cheers - I had a vague recollection of breaking in during an earlier game, but I wasn't dure.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaand this is what I did, it wasn't all that difficult.