14 DAY TRIAL // Police have found the mummified remains of a woman in Santa Fe, New Mexico, in an apartment.
They have identified the body as that of author Barbara Salinas-Norman, and they believe that she had been dead for a long time.
According to KOAT-TV, her brother-in-law entered the apartment as he was concerned about her. Her family hadn't heard from her in a long time.
He entered the flat on Monday, and he was not living in the same town as the late author. Her family came by to visit her from out of town.
Clues around the house point out that she might have been dead for six months to a year. An opened letter was found by the front door, probably having been slipped inside by the mailman.
According to UPI, the letter was dated October 2012, so she might have died at least six months ago. However, an examination has showed that the remains could be one year old.
Officers have described that Salinas-Norman's body was completely mummified, as a result of weather conditions and the temperature in the apartment.
"This woman looks like a mummy, essentially. [...] All of her skin has dried out. You could see the skeleton underneath. There were no body fluids anymore," Santa Fe police spokeswoman Celina Westervelt details.
Salinas-Norman, who was in her 70s and displayed a hoarder's behavior when she died was once a Chicana activist who wrote children's books in Spanish.
One of them is "Los Tres Cerdos: Nacho, Tito and Miguel," an adaptation of "The Three Little Pigs."
She would publish the books under her own publishing company, Pinata Publications. She also worked as a teacher in the 1980s, speaking both Spanish and English. She has taught in the public school system in Oakland, California.