Posted on 12/23/2003 7:20:08 PM PST by GeronL
By JASON TRAHAN / The Dallas Morning News
Standing in Peggy Hickerson's yard evokes more of a sense of the East Texas Piney Woods than a tony North Dallas neighborhood.
Her 50-year-old, one-story frame house in the 6300 block of Royal Crest Drive, a stone's throw from Dallas' Preston Hollow area, is obscured by huge trees and a thicket of overgrown shrubs.
Under the carport is a rusting 1976 Mercury Monarch that shares space with still-bagged newspapers – "Probe ordered in Diana crash" heralds a September 1997 headline.
The Mercury sedan, which a city Code Compliance inspector wrote up as a junked vehicle in February, began a sad saga that ended with a grisly discovery in the dilapidated house this month.
The mummified body of a woman, found on the floor next to a bed, was unclaimed at the Dallas County medical examiner's office as of Monday. The cause of death was heart disease. Investigators continue to search for relatives of the woman, who authorities believe to be Ms. Hickerson, 73.
"It's awful, just sad," said Shawn Niles, 39, one of a couple of neighbors who said the reclusive Ms. Hickerson flatly refused any help through the years. "I'd go over there and knock, but she never answered. I'd call, and there'd be no answer. Most people didn't even know there was a house there."
It's unclear when the woman died, said Sgt. Larry Lewis of the Dallas police homicide unit, which investigated the case until it was ruled a natural death.
"Neighbors last saw her about two months ago," he said. "She was pretty much in a mummified state. There were no utilities on at the house. Some of the ceiling and roof had caved in. The furnishings were rotted and the floor was covered with trash."
Similar case in 1997
He said the scene reminded him of a 1997 case in which a woman was found in her Lakewood area home, apparently having died from natural causes there more than a year before. Investigators estimated when she died based on the dates on the mail on the bottom of a considerable pile just inside her front door. "This type of situation is not that unusual," he said. "There are a lot of people who don't have relatives to check in on them. In some of these cases, these people ... have separated themselves from society."
Large hardwood trees frame Royal Crest Drive, which has well-maintained homes with large, elaborately landscaped yards. Dog walkers, stroller-pushing moms and an occasional Mercedes tool by. Properties in the area are appraised at $300,000 and up.
"How did she live? Why didn't she accept help?" said Tom Martin, who's lived in the neighborhood since 1964. "I just can't figure it out. Everyone communicates with each other in this neighborhood. ... I don't think anyone knew anything about them."
A Code Compliance inspector found the body on Dec. 15 after entering the home through the front door, which had rotted off its hinges. Five days earlier, the inspector went to the house but didn't enter.
The visits were the city's final efforts to contact someone at the house before filing a lawsuit ordering the owner to make repairs or face demolition, said Kathy Davis, Code Compliance director.
An inspector who wrote a citation for the junked car in the carport 10 months ago noticed that the house was not fit to inhabit, which led to a March citation for a substandard structure. Inspectors visited twice in May and again in June and September in an attempt to follow up and contact Ms. Hickerson, who purchased the house in 1968, according to county records.
"We could never make contact with anyone there," said Ms. Davis, whose inspectors also sent certified letters, to no avail. "We thought it was abandoned."
The property is cluttered with weeds and debris, including a silver tray, apparently an orphaned piece of a silver tea service.
No mail delivered
A postal carrier, asked about the woman's house, told the city that no mail was ever delivered there. It is unknown whether Ms. Hickerson had a post office box.
"I think we did what we could," Ms. Davis said. "We can't break down doors."
Mr. Niles said that when he first moved next door in 1992, he would occasionally see his reclusive neighbor, dressed in slacks and a blouse, picking up the newspaper or leaving in the Mercury.
In the late 1990s, however, he noticed less activity. The newspapers began to accumulate in piles, periodically transferred to the carport. The Mercury spent more time parked than on the road.
The property was never particularly well kept since he had lived next door, Mr. Niles said. He paid his yard workers to mow the portion of her grass fronting Royal Crest Drive.
During the summer months, he routinely lobbed insect repellent over his fence and into her swimming pool, which was filled with dark green water.
Records show that a man named Clayton Hickerson lived at the house, the deed to which is in Ms. Hickerson's name. He died in October 1984, records show. Their relationship was not clear.
He is listed as the owner of the 1976 Mercury, which is still parked at the house.
Background checks on both are spare. Neither shows any previous addresses.
E-mail jtrahan@dallasnews.com
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