One day, Houston resident Mary Cerruti was there, and the next, she had vanished without a trace.
The 61-year-old woman’s sudden disappearance continues to be a mystery even after the chilling discovery new owners of the home she lived in made in the attic on Saturday – human skeletal remains.
The Houston Chronicle published a lengthy article about Cerruti in light of the discovery: "Bones found in wall of Heights home of woman who disappeared in 2015."
In it, the Chronicle gives a timeline of Cerruti's disappearance.
Neighbors who knew her had no idea why there was a "for sale" sign on the home she purchased in 2001 or why renovations were being done.
Cerruti lived alone but was active in the community and appeared at planning commission meetings to oppose some of the building projects near her home.
"Literally, this project is going to be in my backyard," she said on Feb. 14, 2013, according to the Chronicle. "I'm surrounded. And I just don't see the sense of this project. It seems like just too many apartments for such a small space."
She appeared there "dressed in pink, with eyeglasses perched on her nose and gray hair falling past her shoulders," the Chronicle reported.
In 2015, Cerruti was reported missing.
The skeletal remains were discovered in a gap in an attic wall alongside a pair of red eyeglasses.
"The new residents on Saturday shifted a board in the attic, peered down inside a wall and saw the remains," the Chronicle reported.
It was revealed that animals had disturbed the remains.
Despite police searching the home, the cleaning out of dead cats and numerous home renovations after foreclosure, the skeleton went undiscovered.
Houston police Detective Jason Fay said it was possible that the deceased fell into an empty space in the attic, the Chronicle reported.
The exact date of Cerruti’s disappearance remains unknown, and the skeleton has not been confirmed to be hers.
Cerruti’s ex-husband reportedly was in Hawaii when the discovery was made.
A neighbor who knew Cerruti, Roxanne Davis, expressed her regret to the Chronicle.
“I wish I knew what more we could have done, how we could have pushed it farther to get somebody to do something else,” she said.
Another neighbor asked the Chronicle: "This lady could just disappear off the face of this Earth, and nobody knows?"
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