Double tragedy

Heart woes claimed ma and daughter in apt.

NEIGHBORS OF A 94-yearold woman and her 70-year-old daughter were reeling Wednesday after learning both women were found dead in the Gramercy Park apartment they shared.

Frances Frisch and her daughter Robyn O’Neill were discovered Tuesday in the master bedroom of the apartment on E. 16th St. near Third Ave.

Neighbors had complained of a smell on the 10th floor. The two may have been dead for nearly two weeks, police sources said.

“Frances was the salt of the earth,” neighbor Melissa Egan said Wednesday. “The fact that she and her daughter are no longer with us is sad.”

Both died of heart disease, a spokeswoman for the city medical examiner’s office said.

Police also found no evidence of foul play at the women’s home — there were no signs of forced entry and no valuables were taken.

Neither victim suffered any wounds or bruises before dying, either, a police source said, adding that both mother and daughter had a laundry list of medical problems.

Building residents said O’Neill doted on her bedridden mother.

“The mother was ailing,” Egan said. “She had trouble walking, and her eyesight had failed.”

O’Neill did all of the chores for both of them, Egan said.

“I saw her in the laundry room a lot,” she said. “She spent a lot of time with the doormen and walking around the neighborhood.”

Before she fell ill, Frisch was an active and lively woman, Egan said.

“She was out every day,” Egan said. “(She) was very funny. She was a diehard liberal and very pronounced in her opinions. She loved reading everything she could.”

O’Neill enjoyed choral singing and attending choir concerts, Egan recalled.

Another building resident said Frisch and her daughter were original tenants of the rent-controlled, two-bedroom unit.

“They lived here since the building was built in the 1960s,” said the tenant, who did not want to be named.

Frisch’s husband died about 20 years ago. No one had seen Frisch or her daughter for several weeks, the tenant said.

“I got concerned,” the woman said. “There are a lot of older people living here. If we don’t see someone, we check up and make sure they’re OK.”