New York state investigators are still answering questions surrounding the death of a 94-year-old woman found rotting in her apartment in December - including why her daughter allegedly lived above her dead mother for months before the body was discovered.
Hope Ruller's body was found in her first-floor Gloversville apartment on Dec. 29 after a relative asked police to check on her welfare, the Associated Press reported. Officials say Ruller's body was so badly decomposed an autopsy was unable to ascertain a cause of death.
"They are unable to determine cause of death due to severe composition, but they are able to rule out blunt force trauma or penetrating objects," Gloversville Police Chief Donald VanDeusen told Time Warner Cable News.
Perhaps a more pressing question is how Ruller's daughter, Mary Kirsteen, lived on the second floor of the two-story home with her adult son while her mother was apparently dead. Though police cannot say for sure when Ruller died, they believe she was there for at least 14 months before the Dec. 29 discovery, the AP reported.
Police are treating Ruller's death as suspicious and Fulton County prosecutors are now looking into the family's background and financial records.
"Often times, when people fail to report the death of an elderly person, perhaps there is financial motive," District Attorney Louise Sira told Time Warner Cable News.
On Wednesday, Richard Ruller, Hope Ruller's son who lives in Colorado, told ABC News 10 he spoke to his sister in May and she told him, like always, his mother was doing well.
"She always tells me things are good as far as my mom. She's OK," the son said.
In December he sent them Christmas cards.
"One to her, one to my mom and I sent my mom money and the check was cashed," he told ABC News 10.
As of Thursday no arrests have been made and the investigation is ongoing.
