US: 74-yr-old lived with sister's corpse in $1.2 mn home for over a year

Boston: Lynda Waldman, 74, was found to be living in a 1920's $1.2 million derelict house, with the decaying corpse of her sister for well over one year, in an affluent town close to Boston.

While people were concerned about the two aged women staying at the sprawling house, the neighbours only discovered that Waldman had been living with the corpse of her sister Hope Wheaton, 67, when they went by the house to help with the heat when temperature fell in December, The Washington Post reported.

The decomposing body of Wheaton was found in the kitchen of the 2-and-a-half storey home.

Authorities said, they believed Wheaton had died some time around the summer of 2015. However, the prosecutor said there were no signs of trauma or foul play, pending medical examination.

A neighbour who knew Hope Wheaton, Harriet Allen, told The Post, "We always asked where she was. She [Waldman] would ignore it."

Brookline TAB newspaper, which first reported the story, mentioned Waldman saying that her late sister used to get sick and fall, unable to get up. She would give her water and fudgesicles until she got better. The last time she fell and did not get up, Waldman told the police, she did not know what she was supposed to do.

The Health Department deemed the home unfit for human occupancy until it is repaired and cleared out. Besides the clutter and the decomposing body, the building also has some structural issues, Patrick Maloney of the Health Department said.