Womans auto-payments hid her death for six years Updated: 03/07/2014 10:19 am PST PONTIAC, MI (CNN) - For years, the payments went out of the womans bank account. Nobody batted an eyelid. Bills were paid. And life went on as normal in the quiet neighborhood of Pontiac, Michigan. Neighbors didnt notice anything unusual. The woman traveled a lot, they said, and kept to herself. One of them mowed her grass to keep things looking tidy. At some point, her bank account ran dry. The bills stopped being paid. After its warnings went unanswered, the bank holding the mortgage foreclosed on the house, a common occurrence in a region hit hard by economic woes. Still, nobody noticed what had happened inside the house. Nobody wondered out loud what had become of the owner. Not until this week, when a worker sent by the bank to repair a hole in the roof made a grisly discovery. The womans mummified body was sitting in the backseat of her car, parked in the garage. The key was halfway in the ignition. Authorities say they believe the woman died at least six years ago. Theyre still trying to figure out what happened. Ive been doing this 37 years. Never seen anything like this before, said Undersheriff Mike McCabe of Oakland County, Michigan, just outside Detroit. Rarely heard from The woman, who authorities arent identifying until theyve informed her family, paid her bills from her bank account through auto-pay, according to McCabe. Neighbors said they didnt know much about the dead woman, describing her as in her 40s and of German descent. She really kept to herself. We never really heard anything from her, neighbor Caitlyn Talbot told CNN affiliate WXYZ. Talbot said she wasnt aware of anyone having seen the woman, who traveled a lot, in about six years. She was probably there for a couple of days, then shed leave for a week, then shed come back. Then shed leave for a month and come back, Talbot said. McCabe says neighbors chalked up the womans absences to her returning to Germany for long periods of time. Despite years without a living owner, the house was never broken into, he said. Cause of death undetermined Police were dispatched to the house for a welfare check in 2007 after a neighbor reported not having seen the owner in a while. After seeing no signs of anything amiss, police went on their way, McCabe said. Authorities are still waiting for a toxicology report, which will take four to six weeks, before determining the cause of death. The medical examiner found no signs of trauma to the body, McCabe said. Dr. Bernardino Pacris, the county deputy medical examiner who conducted the autopsy, told the Detroit Free Press that the womans skin was still intact, but that the internal organs had decomposed. Pacris told the newspaper that during the mummification process, skin develops a parchment-like consistency and leathery texture. Finding a body in such a condition is unusual, he said, but once in a while, we see this. m.ktre/#!/newsDetail/24914685
Posted on: Sat, 08 Mar 2014 05:48:32 +0000
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