Neighbors say Pia Farrenkopf didn't talk to anyone and traveled extensively. Combine that with the fact, her bills were being paid by an auto-draft from her bank, and no one noticed she was dead.
But, as soon as the money ran out and her mortgage payments went unpaid, the company foreclosed.
When a repair man was sent to fix a hole in the roof, he found the woman’s mummified body inside her Jeep in the garage.
He said the key was still halfway in the ignition.
Oakland County Michigan Undersheriff Mike McCabe said, "I've been doing this 37 years, never seen anything like this before.”
Neighbors in Pontiac, Michigan said they cut the grass because they thought she was traveling, and they wanted the neighborhood to look nice.
"She really kept to herself. We never really heard anything from her," Caitlyn Talbot told WXYZ.
"She was probably there for a couple of days, then she'd leave for a week, then she'd come back. Then she'd leave for a month and come back," Talbot continued.
McCabe says the woman was from Germany, so everyone thought she was spending a lot of time there.
This wasn’t the first time cops had been sent to the home. In 2007, they checked on Pia after a neighbor grew concerned and reported not seeing her for some time. They found nothing odd so they left without making contact.
An autopsy will be performed but early reports by the medical examiner confirm there were no signs of trauma.
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