Woman had been dead for two years

POLICE tape barricaded the house, withered leaves lay in the driveway of a house in Edenvale.

Behind the security gate, the skeleton of a 77-year-old woman was found on Thursday. Her remains had been locked in one of the bedrooms for two years without anyone noticing.

The property was owned by Iola Ditcham, a woman fitting the age and description of the neighbours’ reports.

Police said they couldn’t confirm or deny the woman’s identity until DNA tests had been conducted on the remains.

Ditcham had apparently bought the house in 1991.

Police were called to investigate what was happening in the seemingly abandoned premises in Erasmus Road, Edenglen, after neighbours became suspicious as the yard was unkempt and neither Ditcham or her brother, known only as Frank, had been seen on the property in years.

“We called in a locksmith to open the door.

“Inside, the house was unkempt. The remains were found on the floor in a corner inside one of the bedrooms.

“There was no smell coming from the room,” Detective Isaac Maluleke said yesterday.

Forensic examiners were called in from Pretoria to collected the remains.

They would be doing further tests to determine what the cause of death was, Maluleke said.

It was discovered that Ditcham’s husband died more than five years ago. Her brother, who had come to check on her from time to time, also died a few years ago.

Ditcham was a sickly woman. She fell on the driveway a few years back, and had been rarely seen outside the house afterwards.

The police said they could not immediately comment on whether a crime was involved.

They said, however, that there was no sign of forced entry.

A man in his 60s who was living in a shack at the back of the house was ordered to leave the premises.

It is believed that Ditcham had no children, and the police were trying to contact a niece in Cape Town and relatives in Australia.