Sydney: Elderly woman's body found in her house 8 years after death

Sydney, Feb 6: An elderly lady's body was found after 8 years of her death ! Natalie Wood lay dead in her inner city home for nearly eight years before her skeletal remains were found, an inquest heard on Thursday, in a case dubbed "the woman Sydney forgot" by local media, said a ANI report.

Wood was discovered by police in July 2011. She died in early 2004, cops said. She is believed to have fallen in her bedroom and then couldn't get up in her house, which is just metres from the city's bustling Central Station.

At the time she was found, the house looked abandoned

At the time she was found, the house looked abandoned with cobwebs everywhere, water damage and even a tree growing through the top windows.

According to detective Senior Constable Andrew Wills, the house is estimated to be worth almost Aus$1 million (US$890,000). There was no mattress, television or fridge in the house and no purse or wallet was found. However, rings and other valuables lay untouched.

Wills said Wood, who had lived in the house since she was born in 1924, was a recluse, said police. "She kept to herself. It got to a point she answered the door with a special knock", they said.

Apparently, the neighbours thought she had moved away and the house was vacant.

Wood had no will and her sister-in-law Enid Davis and four distant cousins are making a claim on her estate.

Wood's brother died in 2009 and his wife, Davis told the police that she last saw Woods from a bus window on January 30, 2004. "There was no reason (we stopped talking) other than my husband had dementia and got very sick," she said.

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