90 yr old woman

[Homicidalheathen]

Police: 90-year-old living with 3 siblings' bodies

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Digg Facebook Newsvine del.icio.us Reddit StumbleUpon Technorati Yahoo! Bookmarks Print 2 mins agoEVANSTON, Ill. – A 90-year-old woman apparently has been living in a house with the bodies of her three siblings, one of whom may have been dead since the early 1980s, police in suburban Chicago said.

The bodies were found Friday morning by police who were called by a senior advocate, said Evanston police Cmdr. Tom Guenther.

The 90-year-old woman was taken to a hospital for observation. The Cook County medical examiner's office said Saturday that the people had died of natural causes, but it would not say how long they had been dead.

The office has identified the dead as Anita Bernstorff, who was born in 1910, Frank Bernstorff, who was born in 1920, and Elaine Bernstorff, who was born in 1916. Anita Bernstorff was last seen alive in May 2008, Frank Bernstorff in 2003 and Elaine Bernstorff in the early 1980s, authorities said.

Neighbors described the woman as alert and aware, and they said she was well-liked on their close-knit block of large historic homes. She enjoyed gardening and shared her plants with others, they said.

One longtime resident said the woman explained away her siblings' absence by telling neighbors her brother had gone to live with other relatives and that one of her sisters was agoraphobic — afraid to leave the home. The resident said neighbors, who often took the woman food and groceries, were never inside.

[Rev.Reverence]

Wow...

...in her eulogy they'll say, "She really loved her family..."

[~Tszura~]

Hmmmmm, so apparently they were all living with at least one dead sibling for a length of time. And then good ol' Frank grew wings.........I wonder what the two sisters were thinking after that when they looked at each other. They HAD to know whoever died first was just going to be sitting around dead like the other two.

Since they all participated in this, I'm not sure if this represents the devoted bonds of family, or symptoms of a disorder.

It's both touching, and scary.

[pheramoans]

^{I don't even know what to say about this one. My money is on some kind of mental issue running in the family like Tszura said. It's still odd though, all four of them having the same defect? If the second earliest death was in the early '80s, the three of them had been living with a decaying corpse for some time. How could the neighbors not notice the stench???Especially if they were bringing her groceries and sharing in her house plants [whatever that means, how do you share plants? unless she was growing..well, you know.]}

[freydis]

^{I don't even know what to say about this one. My money is on some kind of mental issue running in the family like Tszura said. It's still odd though, all four of them having the same defect? If the second earliest death was in the early '80s, the three of them had been living with a decaying corpse for some time. How could the neighbors not notice the stench???Especially if they were bringing her groceries and sharing in her house plants [whatever that means, how do you share plants? unless she was growing..well, you know.]}

Prolly depends on what they did with it. Keeping conditions very dry and cold might have lessened the stench.

[SaGa]

has there ever been a society that had this as a ritual?? thats my first question.

[TitsMcGee]

It's possible that after the first one went they went on cashing the SS checks and just proceeded to do that which each passing.

[Rev.Reverence]

It's possible that after the first one went they went on cashing the SS checks and just proceeded to do that which each passing.

...a probable possabillity...

[Nightgaunt]

Please, for the love of God, nobody forward this to my sister.

[~Tszura~]

Please, for the love of God, nobody forward this to my sister.

It's possible that after the first one went they went on cashing the SS checks and just proceeded to do that which each passing.

Ahhhhhhhhhhh! Good point!!! Hmmmmmmm, now this crosses over to "If you needed the money, what would would you do?"

**Ponders** Weeeelllllll, I do have a half brother.........ha!

This is the gothiest thing that ever gothed a goth.

Uber Goth? lol

[taysteewonderbunny]

I agree with Tits; maybe they all agreed that they would allow themselves to remain in the home after death so that the living could continue to collect the SS checks. It sounds like a big house and that they would have been loathe to lose it. But even with that as a possibility, the fact that they, as adults, all lived together and had no spouses, apparently, suggests that some level of family dysfunction was also a factor. Not that healthy siblings can't want to be near each other, but usually they also have families of their own--there was no mention of such in this case. Regarding smell, lime often ameliorates some of the stench.

[Nightgaunt]

Regarding smell, lime often ameliorates some of the stench.

Sometimes, TWB, you frighten me a little bit.

[TitsMcGee]

Regarding smell, lime often ameliorates some of the stench.

I thought the same thing.

[Homicidalheathen]