14 DAY TRIAL // “Nobody should be left alone like that,” neighbors of B-movie cult actress and Playboy model Yvonne Vickers tell the Los Angeles Times. Vickers’ body was found mummified in her home, approximately one year after she passed away.
Vickers, known as Playboy Playmate for July 1959, and star of many B-movies that developed a cult following in time, led her life as a “free spirit” in her Benedict Canyon home.
The neighbor who found her body, also an actress, Susan Savage, tells the LA Times that she (Vickers) had a lot of friends and would still receive lots of mail from fans, especially requests for autographed photos.
Vickers had lived in the same house for decades but, in recent years, it had become dilapidated because she could no longer afford repairs.
Savage recalls noticing that the letters in Vickers’ mailbox were starting to turn yellow and that there were cobwebs in the mailbox, which is when she decided to go and see what was going on with her.
Savage says she got a really bad feeling about it, because Vickers would always pick up the mail.
“After pushing open a barricaded front gate and scaling a hillside, Savage peered through a broken window with another piece of glass taped over the hole. She decided to enter the house after seeing a shock of blond hair, which turned out to be a wig,” the LA Times writes.
“The inside of the home was in disrepair and it was hard to move through the rooms because boxes containing what appeared to be clothes, junk mail and letters formed barriers, Savage said. Eventually, she made her way upstairs and found a room with a small space heater still on,” the publication further reports.
It was there that she found the body, though at first, she couldn’t tell what that thing lying on the floor was. Savage insists the remains were “unrecognizable.”
“She kept to herself, had friends and seemed like a very independent spirit. To the end she still got cards and letter from all over the world requesting photos and still wanting to be her friend. We’ve all been crying about this,” Savage says for the aforementioned media outlet.
Police are now investigating Vickers’ death but they do not suspect foul play. It is believed she died nearly one year ago.