Woman's skeleton found in foreclosed L.A. home

By Dan Whitcomb

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Police investigating a foreclosed Los Angeles house found the skeleton of an elderly woman, apparently dead for two years, who had lived there with her 48-year-old son.

Coroner's officials said they were trying to identify the woman they believe was Barbara Hunt, who would have been 86.

Media reports said the woman's son, Robert Hunt, was at the home in North Hollywood when police arrived but had not been taken into custody.

Los Angeles County Coroner's spokesman Craig Harvey said on Wednesday the woman's remains were found in the bed in a back room and that the deterioration of the body made it difficult to determine cause of death.

He said the woman was believed to have died in 2006.

Authorities went to the home on Monday evening after a mortgage broker notified them that it would revert to a bank at midnight after going through foreclosure.

The L.A. Daily News reported on its website that police found Robert Hunt living at the trash-filled home with 26 cats, three opossums and a raccoon.

California has been hit hard by the national wave of foreclosures -- when mortgage lenders repossess homes because buyers cannot meet their payments -- following a slump in the U.S. housing market and the credit market crunch.