LANCASTER, S.C. — By Sunday afternoon, after days of being unable to reach her mother by telephone, Jill Patterson was worried.
Gail Patterson, 51, had moved from North Carolina to Lancaster a few weeks ago to help her sister, Peggy Small, through a rough stretch.
The sisters survived in Small's little house on two disability checks, Jill Patterson said. Gail had scoliosis and a knee replacement. Peggy, 55, had survived a heart bypass and a double mastectomy after breast cancer.
"Nobody had talked to them," Jill Patterson said. "I was worried, so I drove down to check on Momma and Aunt Peggy.
"Both of them had got saved the Sunday before at Antioch Baptist Church. Momma was so excited."
In Lancaster, Jill found the door locked and nobody responding to her knocks or calls. A fan whirred inside. She saw flies inside the house and called police.
Deputies arrived, got permission to jimmy the door with a screwdriver, and found a family's worst nightmare - Gail Patterson and Peggy Small, sisters four years apart, side-by-side on the couch, upright.
And long dead.
Read the complete story at charlotteobserver.com
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