Bay Area woman admits she lived with her dead mother’s body for over a year, police say
A woman continued to live with her mother in Petaluma after she died over a year ago and did not tell anyone, according to police.
The Petaluma Police Department said it found the mother’s decomposing body Tuesday while performing a welfare check, prompted by neighbors who became concerned when they had not seen the daughter for several weeks. The neighbors told police that they believed the woman’s mother used to live at the residence, but they had not seen her in over a year. There were roughly 20-30 packages stacked on the front porch of the home and no one answered the door when neighbors knocked, according to police.
Neighbors called police to check on the woman. On Tuesday, when officers arrived, no one answered the door. Officers then entered the home and found a woman’s body on a sofa in the living room, according to Lt. Jeremy Walsh.
The home was cluttered with trash and boxes from floor to ceiling, and there were only small passable paths carved out of the debris, police said.
Randall Freer, who died last month in Jackson, Calif., is suspected of leaving his father’s body in a recliner in order to collect his funds, authorities said Thursday.
A short time after entering the home and finding the body, police heard the voice of a woman calling to them from one of the bedrooms, authorities said.
“After a slow and methodical process of clearing the debris, officers were able to safely get the adult daughter out of the room and ultimately transported to an area hospital for medical treatment,” Walsh said.
She was cooperating with police and said her mother died of natural causes in April 2021, police said.
Given the advanced stages of decomposition, authorities said it appeared that the older woman had been dead for more than a year. Her body was removed by the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Coroner’s Office. Investigators classified the case as an unattended death, meaning the body was not found for a period of time after the person died.
Firefighters found a body hanging from a tree in Griffith Park. Police are investigating.
The home, after being searched by police, was deemed uninhabitable and red-tagged by code enforcement officers. Authorities said there were no other suspects or safety concerns for the neighborhood.
The names of the two women were not released.
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