Rope found in throat of dead woman

• Tweet

PHILADELPHIA, June 21 (UPI) -- Police said a Philadelphia woman presumed to have died of natural causes was discovered by a funeral director to have cotton rope in her throat.

Philadelphia police said they responded to a call June 10 that a woman had died in an apartment complex, and seeing there was no reason to suspect foul play, directed the body to a funeral home in Willow Grove, Pa.

The following day, during the embalming procedure, funeral director Jeff Thompson discovered about 10 inches of cotton rope and a candy wrapper lodged deep in the throat of 70-year-old Kathleen Mcewan, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported Thursday.

"I've done this for 20 some years on thousands of people, and obviously I knew right away this didn't appear to be a natural cause of death. We called the medical examiner," Thompson said.

He described the rope as similar to that of a drawstring in pants.

Geraldine Cherry, 49, who resided in the same apartment complex as Mcewan, was charged with murder Wednesday and was being held without bail. There is no known motive for the killing, the newspaper said, and the relationship between Cherry and Mcewan was not known.