Investigators are starting to unravel the story behind the mummified woman who was found in the back seat of her Jeep inside the parking garage of her Pontiac home.
Police in the Michigan city located northwest of Detroit reported that the unidentified woman had been missing since 2011.
"She's been dead years," administrator for the Oakland County medical examiner's office Robert Gerds told the Associated Press after he performed an autopsy on Thursday. "Everything is pending right now. It's still under investigation."
An employee of a property management company found the body while performing a walk-through of the foreclosed home on Savanna Drive, Wednesday.
Neighbors who spoke to local station KJRH described the woman as quiet - resident Caitlyn Talbot said she "never really heard anything from her."
"She didn't really talk to anyone," she told the news station. "I'm sure she was a nice lady. She really kept to herself."
The body is believed to belong to a 49-year-old German woman who lived in the home.
Police are still slowly putting together the pieces of the story behind the unidentified female, a former employee for one of the Big Three motor companies.
"You'd think because of her job, and we heard she had a son, so you'd think someone would've come looking for her," Talbot told KJRH.
Others wondered how no flags were raised on the woman's various assets, rent and car payments.
According to FOX 8, the woman's various financials were handled through direct deposit. Payments went out of her bank account for years.
"She had $54,000 in her account and her bills were being deducted," Undersheriff Mike McCabe said to the Associated Press. "Eventually, the money ran out and her house went into foreclosure."
According to a news release from the sheriff's office, neighbors were under the impression that the "woman had moved out of the country three or more years ago because they had not seen her and she kept to herself."
Authorities believe the woman died at least six years ago, when she was 49 years old. But her cause of death, and how exactly she ended up mummified in the back of her own automobile, still remains a mystery.
"I've been doing this 37 years. Never seen anything like this before," McCabe concluded.
