IOL: Dead woman left in front of TV for two years

IOL: Dead woman left in front of TV for two years:

A dead woman dressed in white was positioned in a chair in front of a television set for more than two years because she told her friend she didn’t want to be buried and planned to return, a US coroner said today.

“Don’t show my body when I’m dead,” Hamilton County Coroner Dr O’dell Owens said in describing Johannas Pope’s wishes. “Don’t bury me. I’m coming back.”

Pope died aged 61 on August 29, 2003. Her caretaker and friend, whose name has not been released, left the woman upstairs in the home with the television and air conditioning on while the body slowly decayed and mummified, authorities in Cincinnati, said.

Some family members continued to live downstairs in the house since her death.

Police went to the house last Wednesday after a relative who hadn’t seen Pope in two years called them.

They found a staircase behind a door blocked by a basket and climbed to the second floor where they found the body.

Owens said he had not determined the cause of death but found no signs of abuse or foul play.

Authorities are working to determine whether any crimes were committed, but Owens said the caretaker and family members apparently did not benefit in any way by keeping Pope.