Of all the creepy things... do not let your imagination wander on this one

90 year old placed in care after decaying siblings found in home

Posted Mon Nov 10, 2008 8:14pm AEDT

The decaying remains of three siblings have been found in the Chicago home of their 90-year-old sister, according to US media reports.

Police found the bodies after being contacted by a city social worker who knew the woman, Margaret Bernstorff, the Chicago Sun-Times newspaper reported.

Elaine Bernstorff died in her 60s sometime in the 1970s, while another sister, Anita, died in May aged 98. A brother, Frank, died in 2003, aged 83.

All three died of natural causes, according to an official with the Cook County Examiner's Office, which examined the remains Saturday.

The bodies, some covered with blankets, were found Friday in different rooms of the Victorian-era house in the upscale Chicago suburb of Evanston.

Investigators continued to probe how the frail nonagenarian could have kept the bodies at home, but no charges were filed.

Neighbours of Margaret Bernstorff knew she was a pack rat, but none imagined that along with the old furniture and stacks of old newspapers, she was storing the three decaying bodies of her siblings.

"I'm shocked. I think we're all shocked," Evanston contractor Allan Redmond, who had become friendly with Ms Bernstorff after doing repairs on her home, said.

"A few weeks ago I asked her about her sister [Anita] because it had been a long time since I'd seen her. She said that her sister was sick and upstairs, but I couldn't have imagined something like this."

The Bernstorff family had lived in the historic Evanston neighbourhood since the 1960s, when Margaret's father, Frank, was an assistant professor of German studies at Northwestern University.

Frank Bernstorff died in 1966 and his wife, Lilian, died eight years later.

The home has since been occupied by all four of their children at different times, police said.

Some neighbours occasionally checked in on Ms Bernstorff, bringing food and groceries the woman did not always warmly accept.

"She could be stubborn and she didn't take help a lot of the time," Mr Redmond said.

The 90-year-old has been placed in a senior care facility.

- AFP