Residents of a Detroit suburb were wondering why they hadn't seen a woman in their neighborhood in "about six years." As the woman's home slipped into foreclosure, a contractor working on the house discovered her mummified body at the wheel of her SUV in her garage.
WXYZ reports that the woman hadn't been seen at her Pontiac home in six years and there had been no activity for three years.
Neighbors chalked it up to her work and background; she was German and working for an automaker, according to the TV station (a million bucks says she was a Daimler transplant who arrived during the DaimlerChrysler years; Auburn Hills is right next to Pontiac, and the car she was found in is clearly a Jeep Liberty) and traveled frequently for her job.
One neighbor said the forty-something had a son, but hadn't seen anyone check on her or the house recently. "She didn't really talk to anyone. I'm sure she was a nice lady. She really kept to herself. We never really heard anything from her," she said.
The incident calls to mind the case of Joyce Carol Vincent, a London woman who died in her apartment and wasn't discovered until three years after her death. Her skeleton was found in her chair in front of her television, which was still on when she was found.