Sascha Wil­son

In­ves­ti­ga­tors are await­ing the re­sults of an au­top­sy to de­ter­mine how an el­der­ly woman died.

Ever­lyn Piper, who was bedrid­den, was found dead by her hus­band on her bed at her Gas­par­il­lo home yes­ter­day morn­ing.

An ini­tial po­lice re­port stat­ed that her low­er jaw area ap­peared to be melt­ed. An up­dat­ed re­port, how­ev­er, stat­ed that the body bore no marks of vi­o­lence and foul play was not sus­pect­ed.

The 88-year-old woman lived with her 97-year-old hus­band at Chari­ah Street.

Her care­tak­er Nicole John, who lives next door, ex­plained that ear­li­er this year, Piper de­vel­oped bed­sores and then be­came bedrid­den. She said she and Piper’s niece took care of her every day, but when they left her around 5 pm on Wednes­day, she was in good spir­its and her face ap­peared nor­mal.

John re­called that she was at work when she re­ceived the trag­ic news.

“I came home to see if it was re­al­ly true and when I went in­side to see the con­di­tion she was in, we did not leave her like that yes­ter­day,” John said.

John did not want to go in­to de­tails about the con­di­tion of Piper’s face.

Re­call­ing her last mo­ments with her on Tues­day, John said, “She (Piper) smiled and every­thing yes­ter­day, she was good and we tell her to­mor­row please God. She will just watch you and blink her eye cause she know you go­ing and you will come to­mor­row.”

She said Piper could not eat solids, so they liq­ue­fied her foods.

John said Piper al­ways looked for­ward to Christ­mas. “She was a per­son al­ways nice to every­body, smil­ing, she was just wait­ing for Christ­mas. She say she want to go down the road to shop for Christ­mas. As we change cur­tain yes­ter­day in the bed­room, she watch­ing it, she know is Christ­mas time.”

She said she could not un­der­stand how Piper’s face be­came dis­fig­ured.

Piper’s hus­band was at home but de­clined an in­ter­view. His son William said his fa­ther was mar­ried to Piper for over 50 years, but they had no chil­dren to­geth­er. He said he went to his fa­ther’s home yes­ter­day to help him wash his clothes and saw Piper ly­ing dead on the bed.

He said his fa­ther was not vi­o­lent.

“I know my fa­ther ... He ig­no­rant but he ent go do no­body noth­ing in that sense. He is a pleas­ant man. He might curse and car­ry on but he don’t do no­body noth­ing. He don’t drink rum. He drink he lil sweet drink, eat he cake and that’s the man.”

Asked about the con­di­tion of Piper’s face, he said, “It have a lot of rat in the house so I eh know if rat bite up she face...”

He said his fa­ther fond­ly called Piper Queen Pin and they were al­ways to­geth­er.

“He does go and look for she. He al­ways for she but it have fam­i­ly who does think oth­er­wise...,” he said. Rel­a­tives and neigh­bours be­lieve Piper’s in­jury may have been caused by acid or a cor­ro­sive sub­stance. In­ves­ti­ga­tors are await­ing an au­top­sy to de­ter­mine her cause of death.