Patricia and Joan Miller were identical twins who pursued their dreams together. As a team, the Miller sisters met Bing Crosby, appeared on a TV show in the 1950s and purchased a house in California's picturesque South Lake Tahoe.
Their shared life ended in a mysterious double death at their home. One body was found last week in a downstairs bedroom, and the other was in the hallway just outside. They were 73.
Medical investigators have not been able to determine how or when the women died, but their decomposed bodies suggest they had been dead for at least several weeks when they were found, said Detective Matt Harwood with the El Dorado County sheriff's office. Toxicology reports likely won't be available for at least two more months.
There was no blood, no signs of struggle. Nothing indicated that the women had persistent health troubles. Their longtime home was not unkempt, a likely sign of mental or physical illness.
It was as if the two sisters, long each other's only companion, could not live without each other, Harwood told The Associated Press.
``My perception is one died and the other couldn't handle it,'' said Harwood, who has been unable to find any close friends or family members of the twins. ``It appears purely natural, but we are still trying to piece it all together.''
Police usually do not release the names of the dead without first informing their relatives, but the sisters' shrouded lives made that impossible, Harwood said. Even after widespread media reports of their deaths this week, no relatives have come forward, Harwood said Wednesday.
Never married and without children or pets, the Miller sisters had long withdrawn into the four-bedroom home they purchased in 1976. When people called, the sisters came up with excuses to get off the phone. Without explanation, they stopped sending birthday cards to a childhood friend. And on the rare occasion when they left their home, the two women didn't chat up the neighbors.
``The circumstance surrounding their death is somewhat of an enigma,'' Harwood said. ``These two only ever had each other, and we would like, at least for their sake, to notify their family.''
A neighbor spotted an ambulance at the house a year ago and assumed the sisters had fallen ill. Someone asked police to check regularly on the house. When officers arrived Feb. 25 for a routine check, no one answered the door. The next day, police forced their way in and found the bodies.
As news of the deaths spread, former South Lake Tahoe residents called police to report that they had lived near the sisters for decades in some cases, and had hardly seen them. One sent in a postcard that claimed the sisters were the only remaining members of their family after their mother's death and their brother died at war.
The Miller twins were the daughters of Fay Lang and Elmon Gordon Miller, who went by the name ``Bud'' and was born in 1895 in Bremen, Kentucky, Harwood said. He was a dairy salesman in Oakland at one point.
The sisters grew up in Portland, Oregon, before moving to the San Francisco area, where Joan Miller attended college. The women briefly appeared on a 1950s television show called the ``The Hoffman Hayride'' and posed for a picture with Crosby as children. The twins also entertained troops at military bases, a childhood friend told Harwood.
The sisters never seemed interested in dating or expanding their social spheres. They listed each other as their next of kin, Harwood said.
``All they had was each other, and that's actually the way they wanted it,'' he said.
Joyce Peterson of the International Twins Association, a social group based in Oklahoma, said she once heard of 100-year-old twins who died within days of each other.
``As a twin, you've got this bond, you're close _ almost like a married couple,'' said Peterson, of Minnesota, who serves as co-vice president of the group with her identical sister. (AP)
<한글 기사>
평생 서로만 의지했던 쌍둥이자매 함께 숨져
미국에서 일흔 평생 외부와의 교류를 거의 끊고 서로만을 의지하며 살았던 쌍둥이 자매가 집에서 함께 숨진 사실이 뒤늦게 알려졌다.
캘리포니아 주(州)의 엘도라도 카운티 경찰은 일란성 쌍둥이 퍼트리샤•조앤 밀러(73) 자매가 사우스레이크타호 마을에 있는 자신들의 집안에서 숨진 채 발견돼 정 확한 사망원인을 조사 중이라고 7일(현지시간) 밝혔다.
현지 언론은 이들의 사연을 일제히 보도했으며 경찰도 자매의 실명을 공개해 가 족이나 지인을 찾는데 주력하고 있다.
그러나 이들은 주변과 일절 접촉을 하지 않았던 탓에 이들의 사망과 관련해 정확히 파악된 건 거의 없다.
경찰이 밀러 자매의 사망을 확인한 것은 지난달 26일.
발견 당시 시신의 부패가 진행 중이었던 것으로 보아 이들은 사망한 지 최소 몇 주 지난 것으로 추정된다.
자매의 시신이 발견되기 전날, 경찰은 자매의 집에 정기방문차 들렀다.
1년 전 한 이웃이 이들의 집에 온 응급차를 보고 이들이 아프다고 생각해 경찰에 주기적으로 자매의 집을 방문해달라고 요청했기 때문이다.
그러나 평소와 달리 이날은 인기척이 없는 점을 이상하게 여긴 경찰이 다음날 다시 자매의 집을 찾았고, 자매는 각각 1층 침실과 복도에서 숨진 채 발견됐다.
조사 결과 타살 흔적이나 신체•정신적 질병을 앓은 징후도 없었다.
경찰은 "마치 평생 유일하게 함께했던 동반자가 죽자 다른 한 명이 슬픔을 견디지 못하고 숨진 것으로 보인다"고 말했다.
밀러 자매의 사망 소식이 알려지자 과거 사우스레이크호에 살았던 사람들이 경찰에 연락을 해왔지만 이곳에서 수십년 살았다는 사람조차 이들을 본 적이 거의 없었다.
둘은 결혼한 적이 없으며 자식이나 애완견도 없이 1976년부터 방 4개가 딸린 지 금의 주택을 구입한 이후 줄곧 둘이서만 살았다.
언제부턴가 유년 시절 친구에게도 생일 축하카드를 보내지 않았으며 사람들이 전화해도 이런저런 핑계로 금방 끊었다. 가끔 외출을 해도 이웃과 대화하지도 않았다.
이에 대해 경찰은 "그들이 원했던 삶의 방식이었다"고 말했다.
국제쌍둥이협회의 조이스 피터슨 부회장은 "100살 된 쌍둥이가 한 명이 죽자 다 른 한 명도 며칠 뒤에 숨진 사례도 있다"며 "마치 결혼한 사이처럼 쌍둥이는 서로 통하는 무언가가 있다"고 말했다.
