Neighbors are in disbelief following the shocking discovery of the body of a 96-year-old woman in the garage behind their apartment building Monday night.
“It’s really creepy and really scary,” said Brigitte Yanez.
Yanez and her family live in the unit above her landlord on the 5500 block of West Melrose Street in Chicago's Portage Park neighborhood.
On Monday afternoon, police confirmed that a 96-year-old woman was discovered unresponsive at the property and later pronounced dead.
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Video from the scene captured police removing a freezer from the garage. A death investigation is currently underway.
“They were I guess doing a wellness check,” said Yanez, who wasn’t home at the time of the search.
She says police were called by someone from out of state.
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“Apparently she wasn’t opening the door,” said Yanez, referring to her landlord. “Somehow the cops ended up in the back and that’s where they found the body.”
Yanez and her father, Hector, confirm the deceased was their landlord’s mother who lived in the unit for years.
“My mom used to see that lady in the window, all the time looking through the window,” said Hector Yanez.
Yanez says he, nor his mother, have seen the woman in at least three years.
“We never knew what was going on,” said another neighbor who didn’t want to be identified.
He lives in the basement unit and was told the elderly woman was home.
“Every time we ask her where her mom was, she would say 'she’s upstairs sleeping. She’s okay,'” he said.
Hector Yanez got another story when he asked about it.
“One day I asked her, ‘where’s your mom?’ And she said, ‘she’s in a nursing home in Wisconsin,’” said Yanez.
Chicago police have not confirmed any arrests and says the investigation is ongoing pending autopsy results.
The Cook County Medical Examiner’s office has not yet identified the decedent.
