Pia Farrenkopf: How She Went Unnoticed for Five Years

Pia Farrenkopf was a 49-year-old Massachusetts native living alone in Pontiac, Michigan, whose mummified body was found in the back seat of her Jeep Liberty on March 5, 2014, roughly five years after she died. Automated mortgage and utility payments drawn from a checking account with $54,000 in it, a job that had her traveling constantly, a standing arrangement to have her mail returned, and a neighbor who kept mowing her lawn combined to make the house look occupied long after she was gone.

How She Was Found

A property management worker sent by a mortgage lender entered the foreclosed home on Savanna Drive on March 5, 2014. In the attached garage, inside her Jeep Liberty, the worker found Farrenkopf’s mummified remains in the rear seat.¹ She was dressed in jeans, a shirt, and a winter coat. The windows were up, the keys sat partially in the ignition in the “off” position, and there was still gas in the tank.² A nearly empty wine bottle and unopened mail were in the vehicle with her.³

Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard estimated she had most likely died in late 2008 or early 2009.² Her employer, the now-defunct Chrysler Financial, where she worked as a contractor, last saw her in September 2008.⁴ The last official trace of her was an October 15, 2008, traffic ticket for lack of proof of insurance; her vehicle registration had expired the month before.⁵

Why No One Noticed for Five Years

Several things worked together to make a house with a dead woman in the garage look like a house whose owner was simply away.

Her bills kept paying themselves. Farrenkopf had set up auto-pay for her mortgage and utilities from a checking account holding $54,000. Those drafts ran uninterrupted until the account was finally drained in 2013, at which point the lender started foreclosure.⁶ For roughly four years, from the outside, nothing looked wrong.

Her job had conditioned everyone to her absence. Farrenkopf’s contracting work involved regular travel, and neighbors assumed her extended disappearance meant she was overseas, possibly in Germany. Undersheriff Mike McCabe said neighbors simply accepted that she was away.⁶ Her family on the East Coast assumed the same thing. When a sister died in 2007 and her mother Marie died in 2012, relatives tried calling and got no answer, and chalked it up to her travel or her well-known preference for not being disturbed.⁷ No one ever filed a missing person report.⁸

The house looked tended. A neighbor mowed her grass for years, so the property never developed the overgrown, abandoned appearance that usually draws attention or complaints.⁶

There was no mail pile-up. Farrenkopf had a long-standing arrangement with her mail carrier to return her mail, since she handled correspondence online and traveled often. Nothing ever stacked up at the door or spilled from the box.²

A wellness check had already come up empty. In 2007, before her estimated time of death, a neighbor reported not having seen her for a while and police went to the home. Officers found nothing unusual and left.⁶ After that, no one called again.

Finally, the body itself gave no warning. Sealed in a closed vehicle inside a closed garage, the remains mummified instead of decomposing in a way neighbors would have smelled.⁶

What Killed Her

Investigators never found out. Oakland County Deputy Medical Examiner Dr. Bernardino Pacris ruled the cause and manner of death undetermined, explaining that the mummification had left no organs, no muscle tissue, and no fingerprints, and that the skin had taken on a “parchment-like” quality that made ordinary autopsy work impossible.⁹ He added that “the possibility of hypothermia or any drug or chemical intoxication cannot be ruled out.”¹⁰

Sheriff Bouchard noted that carbon monoxide poisoning could not be confirmed from remains in that condition, though the ignition key being in the “off” position and gas still in the tank made that scenario less likely.¹¹ There was no visible trauma on the body and no sign of foul play at the scene.¹⁰ The sheriff’s department treated the case as a homicide for investigative purposes, subpoenaed cell phone and bank records, and worked with engineers to try to pull forensic data from the Jeep. By early 2015, investigators conceded the case had gone cold and said it was unlikely they would ever know how she died.³

The 2010 Vote Cast in Her Name

One record did not fit the timeline. Michigan voter files showed Farrenkopf had voted in the November 2010 gubernatorial election, around two years after her estimated death.¹² She had been registered since February 2006 and had never cast a ballot before, which made the entry stand out.⁵

Pontiac City Clerk Sherikia Hawkins said her name could have been “highlighted accidentally” at the polling location and entered into the system as a voter in error.⁵ Sheriff Bouchard agreed the entry was an error rather than fraud. Republican U.S. Senate candidate Rocky Raczkowski disputed that explanation, saying verification was no longer possible because the relevant voter rolls and applications had been destroyed in 2012, and noting that the voters listed directly above and below her on the poll book had not voted that day, which made the accidental-highlight story harder to accept.¹³

Who She Was

Pia Davida Farrenkopf grew up in South Boston, one of ten children born to Joseph and Marie Farrenkopf. She was of Belgian and Irish descent, not German, as many early reports assumed.¹⁴² She worked as a contractor for Chrysler Financial, left a software company a few months before her death, and had savings of $87,199.80 at the time of that resignation in 2008.¹⁵³

People who knew her described her as intelligent and private, and as someone who could cut off relationships abruptly. Siblings and friends called her a “loner” and “very private,” and said she sometimes went years without contacting family.¹⁴ That pattern is part of why her silence, when it finally became permanent, did not alarm anyone.

1
The Oakland Press. Past Records Inconsistent for Pontiac Homeowner Thought To Be Found Mummified Woman
2
USA Today. Mummified Woman Found in Foreclosed Home
3
New York Daily News. Death of Mummified Michigan Woman Pia Farrenkopf Still Unsolved a Year Later
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USA Today. Mummified Woman Found in Garage
5
MLive. Pia Farrenkopf Pontiac Woman
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CNN. Michigan Mummified Body Found
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USA Today. Mummified Woman Foreclosed Home
8
CBS News Detroit. Mummified in Michigan Page Honors Pia Farrenkopf
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The Oakland Press. Unsolved Mummified Body Mystery May Never Reach Conclusion Says Lead Doctor
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CBS News. Mummified Woman Found in Michigan Garage ID’d
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MLive. Mystery of Pia Farrenkopf
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CBS News. Mummified Detroit Woman Voted Two Years After Dying Records Show
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The Oakland Press. Senate Candidate Raczkowski Questions Mummified Woman’s Voting Records
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USA Today. Mystery Mummified Body
15
The New Yorker. The Afterlife of Pia Farrenkopf