Twins, 97, die after night out

UNITED STATES: Twin sisters aged 97 died within a few feet of each other after falling over on a bitterly cold night in Rhode Island.

Jean Haley and Martha Williams were found outside the former’s home in Barrington.

Williams appears to have collapsed in the driveway and police believe that Haley may have tripped on a rug in the garage while trying to get help.

John Lacrosse, the town’s police chief, said the pair had gone out for dinner on Friday night with a younger sister, who is 89.

She had driven home after returning with the twins to Hayley’s bungalow.

Williams, who lived about 10 minutes’ drive away in East Providence, appears to have been walking to her car when she tripped and fell.

‘‘There’s a rug on the floor of the garage and it’s twisted a little bit,’’ Lacrosse said.

‘‘We are assuming that she (Hayley) may have fallen on the rug trying to get into the house.’’

Her brick and clapboard bungalow stands at the end of the road and at the edge of an inlet.

The garage faces out towards the water, the door was open and the temperature was well below freezing, thanks to a weather pattern moving south from the arctic.

The following morning a neighbour noticed Williams’ car and beside it a bag of food from the restaurant that they had visited, which had attracted a seagull.

The neighbour ‘‘sees Martha face down,’’ said Lacrosse.

‘‘She’s not moving. He calls 911, then he looks up in the garage. The other sister is face down. She was still alive when rescue workers got to her that morning.’’

The twins were taken to hospital in Providence, where both were pronounced dead. - The Times