Mystery shrouds death of reclusive 73-year-old twins
Source: Agencies |
March 8, 2012, Thursday
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PATRICIA and Joan Miller were identical American twins who pursued their dreams together. As a team, the Miller sisters met Bing Crosby, appeared on a TV show in the 1950s and purchased a house in California's picturesque South Lake Tahoe.
Their shared life ended in a mysterious double-death at their home last week. One body was in a downstairs bedroom, and the other was in the hallway just outside. They were 73.
There was no blood, no signs of struggle. Nothing indicated that the women had persistent health troubles. Their longtime home was not unkempt, a likely sign of mental or physical illness.
It was as if the two sisters, long each other's only companion, could not live without each other, said Detective Matt Harwood with the El Dorado County sheriff's office.
"My perception is one died and the other couldn't handle it," said Harwood, who has been unable to find any close friends or family members of the twins. "It appears purely natural, but we are still trying to piece it all together."
Police usually do not release the names of the dead without first informing their relatives, but the sisters' shrouded lives made that impossible, Harwood said.
Never married and without children or pets, the Miller sisters had long withdrawn into the four-bedroom home they purchased in 1976. When people called, the sisters came up with excuses to get off the phone. And on the rare occasion when they left their home, the two women didn't chat up the neighbors.
A neighbor spotted an ambulance at the house a year ago and assumed the sisters had fallen ill. Someone asked police to check regularly on the house. When officers arrived on February 25 for a routine check, no one answered the door. The next day, police forced their way in and found the bodies.
Calls on Tuesday to several longtime residents and social groups in the area turned up little, as many community leaders said they had never heard of the sisters.
Their shared life ended in a mysterious double-death at their home last week. One body was in a downstairs bedroom, and the other was in the hallway just outside. They were 73.
There was no blood, no signs of struggle. Nothing indicated that the women had persistent health troubles. Their longtime home was not unkempt, a likely sign of mental or physical illness.
It was as if the two sisters, long each other's only companion, could not live without each other, said Detective Matt Harwood with the El Dorado County sheriff's office.
"My perception is one died and the other couldn't handle it," said Harwood, who has been unable to find any close friends or family members of the twins. "It appears purely natural, but we are still trying to piece it all together."
Police usually do not release the names of the dead without first informing their relatives, but the sisters' shrouded lives made that impossible, Harwood said.
Never married and without children or pets, the Miller sisters had long withdrawn into the four-bedroom home they purchased in 1976. When people called, the sisters came up with excuses to get off the phone. And on the rare occasion when they left their home, the two women didn't chat up the neighbors.
A neighbor spotted an ambulance at the house a year ago and assumed the sisters had fallen ill. Someone asked police to check regularly on the house. When officers arrived on February 25 for a routine check, no one answered the door. The next day, police forced their way in and found the bodies.
Calls on Tuesday to several longtime residents and social groups in the area turned up little, as many community leaders said they had never heard of the sisters.
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