Police launched an investigation after a man found the dead body of a woman in his father’s attic, according to police in Germany.
Cloppenburg police said that they got a call from the 33-year-old man, who was not identified, saying that he found the dead body while renovating the attic of his father’s home on Sunday.
Police officers who arrived at the scene, found the skeleton underneath a pile of old jackets, pants and shoes. Officers removed the dead body from the home and took it to the medical examiner’s office for an autopsy.
The dead body was identified as a 28-year-old woman who disappeared 40 years ago about 3 miles from the home.
Police also found an old police report, which stated that the woman had disappeared before and was found after six weeks in a forest.
The mother of three children had a history of mental illness, police said. Her husband died 4 years ago. Investigators believe that the woman went up to the attack and fell asleep.
She eventually froze to death. Police are not treating the death as suspicious.