Woman Found to Have Lived With Body of Dead Mother for a Year

Police in Petaluma, California, discovered a woman on Tuesday who said she'd been living with the decomposing body of her dead mother for more than a year.

Officers visited the property, in the 200 block of Windsor Drive in the northern California town, after concern was raised about the welfare of the two women believed to be living there, according to local paper The Press Democrat.

After entering the home at about 10:50 a.m., they found a dead woman in the living room, along with her adult daughter who was in a bedroom.

Lt. Jeremy Walsh, from the Petaluma Police Department, said: "She had been living inside the house the entire time and was well aware of her mother's body being located inside the house."

The Mercury News reports the body was "in the advanced stages of decomposition" when it was discovered.

When asked, the second woman said she was the daughter of the deceased person, who she said had died of natural causes in April 2021.

She cooperated with police before being taken to a local hospital to receive a medical evaluation.

Custody of the dead woman, who is yet to be named, was taken by the Sonoma County Coroner's Office.

Authorities have launched an investigation into the unexplained death, with Walsh saying there were no obvious indicators of its cause.

Police insisted there is no wider threat to the public, stating: "Currently, there are no outstanding suspects or safety concerns in the neighborhood."

The property was red-tagged by a Petaluma Code Enforcement officer after being deemed uninhabitable.

A neighbor became concerned about the daughter after she wasn't seen for weeks, whilst 20-30 packages had accumulated in front of the property.

After knocking on the door to no response, they contacted the police, also mentioning the woman's elderly mother hadn't been seen for more than a year.

Newsweek has contacted the City of Petaluma Police Department for comment.

On August 14, police in Wallace, California found a decomposing body sitting in a chair inside a house, with a Calaveras County Sheriff's spokesperson saying "evidence suggested" it had been in place for "more than three years".

Separately officers in Wisconsin are appealing for information after YouTuber Matthew Nunez came across skeletal remains on the second floor of an abandoned building in Milwaukee.

The body was wearing five rings, and had a tattoo on its left forearm reading "King".

Since May, five bodies have been recovered from Lake Mead in Nevada and Arizona, as the waters receded due to a megadrought.

One of the corpses was found in a barrel, which police suggested may be linked to organized crime.

The human body begins decomposing about four minutes after death, according to Aftermath, a company that specializes in crime scene and biohazard cleaning.

As blood circulation around the body has stopped, oxygen can no longer be supplied or waste removed. The subsequent buildup of carbon dioxide causes cell membranes to break apart.

Leaked gases caused by cell breakup cause bloating around the body, which can reach double its normal size, along with skin discoloration. In the next stage flesh, muscle and organs become liquefied, leaving just the bones, hair and some cartilage.