Ten years after police were deceived by an altered name and birth year on a driver’s licence, the identities of a California woman who starved to death on her couch and another body discovered under the kitchen table of the same home have been revealed.
According to a news release, the woman was initially recognised as 58-year-old “Francesca Linda Jacobs” by her driver’s licence in February 2014. Monterey Police did not initially suspect foul play in the woman’s death. The Monterey County Weekly reported that she was found dead surrounded by reused fast-food drink containers while wearing a blue velour pantsuit.
However, what was discovered during a check of her flat would stump detectives for a decade.
Police discovered “decomposed remains of another person inside a box” in the dining area. The cause of death was unknown. The body was “mummified, wrapped in plastic, placed in a wooden crate that was wrapped in even more plastic, and then placed inside a cardboard box,” according to the Weekly.
A handwritten poem found in the woman’s pursue, entitled “Safely Home” and referring to the writer in heaven, indicated that the woman had been preparing for her death. Another handwritten document, entitled “The Last Will and Testament of Francesca Linda Jacobs,” indicated that all of her possessions should be given to her landlord in lieu of rent.
It also requested that the mother, “Florence Ida Jacobs,” who was inside the cardboard box be cremated and interred with her daughter in a cemetery north of Los Angeles.
However, “Francesca Jacobs” had no data older than 1990, while “Florence Jacobs” had almost no background information available.
The woman depicted on Francesca’s driver’s licence appeared to be a different, older woman, and her body appeared to be much older than the age given on the document.
According to the Monterey Weekly, “Linda”‘s neighbours described her as “a little strange” and quite private. Since she moved in 12 years prior to passing away, neither her neighbours nor her landlord had entered the apartment, and they were unaware that a body had been hidden in her kitchen.
For many years, the mysterious incident was referred to as the “Mom-in-the-Box” case by news organisations and law enforcement.
According to CBS News, the Monterey County District Attorney’s Office transferred genetic samples from the two women and other unidentified victims to the private Othram lab in Texas in an effort to clear up backlogs in cold cases.
The woman who starved to death was identified as Linda Rae Jacobs by the lab, who also discovered that she was 12 years older than the woman whose age was indicated on her driver’s licence. It was discovered that her mother, “Ida Florence Jacobs,” was the other body.” Detectives were able to get in touch with the women’s families because to these findings.
The analysis also proved there was no foul play involved in the older woman’s death.
“The reasons Linda Rae Jacobs assumed a new name or why she would keep her mother’s body in a box under the kitchen table will likely never be known,” police said in their release.
However, per MPD detectives, a “previous husband” who helped confirm the women’s true identities detailed the “unusually strong life-long bond between [the] daughter and mother.”
