DNA tests pending on bones found in Heights bungalow
Whether remains are those of missing woman still unknown
The medical examiner for Harris County has released a long-awaited cause-of-death determination for the bones found months ago in the wall of a Heights bungalow, where a woman had gone missing several years before.
Their findings on the cause and manner of death? Undetermined.
DNA results on the skeletal remains are still pending. At least one tooth was sent to the DNA lab at the University of North Texas. But an official there at the time said it could be months before staff were able to process it.
A recent cut in federal funding contributed to a backlog at the lab, as agencies across the country tried to get in their requests before money ran out, lab spokesman Todd Matthews said.
And so the mystery continues: Are those the bones of Mary Cerruti?
New tenants moving into Cerruti’s former home discovered the skeletal remains in March, renewing questions about her fate.
For more than 10 years, Cerruti resided in the small, yellow bungalow on Allston Street. She worked occasionally at a store nearby. A few acquaintances would come to visit. But she mostly kept to herself, neighbors
said. She often seemed ill. She found joy in tending to a number of cats.
She did attend at least one city meeting, however, when developers were forging ahead with plans to build a massive apartment building around her home. She and others in the neighborhood protested, but they lost. Bulldozers began razing the property around her. The towering structure went up.
Cerruti endured the headaches of construction, taking photographs of it. She scrawled notes on the back of the developed prints.
Two 911 callers grew concerned about Cerruti in June 2015. A window had been broken on her home, which seemed to be filled with dead cats. A friend officially reported her missing in August. Mail piled up in her lawn. The landscaping became overgrown.
Later, her house was sold at foreclosure. The new owner renovated it. He offered her eclectic possessions for sale. New tenants moved in, found the remains and promptly moved out. Another pair of residents now lives there but declined to speak on the matter.
Clues as to what happened to Cerruti are now few and far between. If those bones are hers, many wonder how she ended up in the wall.
Some who have followed her story suspect foul play, but no crime scene was ever preserved. Houston police have declined to comment on any search they did of the home.
Skeletal remains often reveal little about the manner of death, Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences spokeswoman Tricia Bentley said. Wounds that didn’t get passed onto the bone would be hard to determine.
A copy of the autopsy report was not immediately available for release Thursday.