Woman got benefits for years after death

• Tweet

JENNINGS, Mo., Aug. 2 (UPI) -- A woman last seen alive in 1994 was still getting Social Security checks when her mummified remains were found in a Missouri home in February, an official says.

The remains of Gladys Stansbury were discovered Feb. 26 by relatives cleaning out the Jennings, Mo., home of her 75-year-old daughter, Gladys Bergmeier, who was found dead by police Feb. 7 after a neighbor reported not seeing her.

Stansbury's body was wrapped in plastic and a multicolored curtain. The home was full of newspapers, magazines and bags of trash.

Authorities have been unable to establish when or how Stansbury died, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported Tuesday. Relatives and friends said they had lost touch after she moved to Jennings in 1993. She was last seen alive in 1994.

"A search of our records shows that Ms. Stansbury was in payment status until February 2011," Mona Finch, division director of the Office of Privacy and Disclosure at the Social Security Administration's Washington headquarters, said in an e-mail Monday.