water heater mystery :(

[made2care]

Took out the water heater yesterday. plumbing was connected and all wiring to control board appears good, however, the 110 was not hooked up and the ouside rocker switch has been removed. I have located the white wire from the heater but not the black. also, it appears as though the previous owner had a major leak. some of the flooring under the sink replaced with new plywood.
Did i purchase a lemon???

[450Donn]

No, Leaks are quite common if owners do not do the preventative maintenance necessary to main them properly. And at that there can still be leaks.
As for the WH is there actually a 120VAC heater element installed? And does it work? I would suspect that somewhere along the line the element was removed or the WH was replaced and to save a few bucks the PO got one without the electric heating element installed.

[made2care]

that makes sense. i will check the element. this model is both electric and gas, but you are correct, they might have burned out the element and just gone with lp.