Mummified body of woman, 70, found sitting in chair after two years

The mummified corpse of a woman was recently discovered still sitting at the kitchen table of her home in Prestino, near Lake Como in Northern Italy.

The deceased (pictured here) has been identified as 70-year-old Marinella Beretta. She was found still sitting on a chair after what investigators believed to be two years after her death. According to the New York Post, local police made the grim discovery during a courtesy call.

The elderly woman had lived in the house under a usufruct agreement with its new owner, an unnamed Swiss man. The agreement allowed her to stay at the property on the condition that she keep it in good condition. The owner reportedly alerted the authorities to check up on her after neighbours told him that the garden was in a poor state.

Neighbours likewise said that they last saw Beretta in 2019 and thought she had moved out at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Authorities then knocked at her door to warn her of high winds forecast that could potentially uproot the trees in her garden.

Investigators are still trying to find out her cause of death. But they did not find anything on the scene that would suggest there was foul play involved. As for her corpse, it is believed that she had been dead for over two years based on the level of decay.

"What happened to Mrs. Marinella Beretta in Como, the forgotten loneliness, hurts consciences," Elena Bonetti, 47, the Italian Minister for Family and Equal Opportunities, said of Beretta's death.

"Remembering her life is the duty of a community that wants to stick together. We need to not limit our horizons to the private and go back to healing the ties between ourselves. Taking care of each other is the experience of families, institutions, and our citizens: no one should be left alone," she added.

It is unclear how Beretta's body came to be mummified. But it can reportedly happen in situations where there is a lack of oxygen, aridity, or under extreme cold. According to authorities, she had no surviving relatives or family.