Arizona police find 'mummified' body in a home during a burglary investigation

Arizona police officers found a mummified body in a bathtub while they were investigating a burglary in a home on Saturday. 

Police officers responded to a burglary at around 3:33 a.m. at a home in northwestern Arizona, Bullhead City police said in a press release. 

When they arrived at the home, police officers found 65-year-old Christine Lee Walters going through items inside the house. Walters was “allegedly ransacking the home and selling the homeowner's purses, bags, and clothing online,” reported Fox News. 

When the police did a thorough check inside the house, they came across the mummified body in the bathroom of the house. 

Walters told police officers she didn’t the body was inside the house. Walters had also been inside the home two days earlier, police added.

The Mohave County Examiner’s Office identified the deceased woman as 60-year-old Wendy Ann Mica. 

“Mica was the homeowner of the residence in the 100 block of Palm Avenue in Bullhead City,” Emily Fromelt, public relations officer for the Bullhead City Police Department, said in a news release Thursday afternoon. “It is unknown how long she had been deceased inside her home. The medical examiner indicated that Mica’s death was not suspicious or criminal in nature.”

Neighbors told police officers they thought their neighbor had moved away because they had not seen her in a year. 

"Detectives located more items belonging to the victim, including her birth certificate, IRS paperwork, driver’s license, and credit cards. Police also found drug paraphernalia items and a useable amount of methamphetamine," police said.

Walters was booked into jail on two counts of burglary. Police are seeking additional charges after she was found with methamphetamine and drug paraphernalia.