Rat-Ravaged Remains Found In Wall Identified As Homeowner Missing Since 2015

A years-long mystery as to the whereabouts of a Texas woman was finally put to bed Tuesday, the Houston Chronicle reported. A Houston medical examiner positively identified decomposed skeletal remains as those of Mary Cerruti, 61, who went missing at an undetermined point in 2015.

Since Cerutti lived alone and did not have many family members or friends that her neighbors knew of, an uncertain amount of time passed between her disappearance and the missing persons report. After a while, people noticed the lawn had become unruly and one of her windows was broken, prompting an investigation.

As she was not around to pay her mortgage, the house was foreclosed on. There was no trace of Cerutti for almost two years until new tenants moved into the house in March 2017. One of them found a pair of red eyeglasses that were known to belong to Cerutti, which led to the discovery of human remains in the gap between walls. Those remains, now known to be Cerutti’s, were badly ravaged by rats.

Cerutti, twice married and twice divorced, was known in the neighborhood as a small woman who lived alone, save for numerous cats. The Chronicle’s initial report about the discovery of her remains painted her as a fierce opponent of an expensive apartment complex that was built near her Houston Heights home.

Much of what the public found out about Cerutti in the wake of her disappearance came from dozens of undated photographs she took that were then sold at an estate sale after she went missing. One of her neighbors bought the photos and the Chronicle compiled many of them into a slideshow.

The majority of the photos depict developments around the neighborhood or her many cats, which unfortunately passed away after she disappeared. She would write descriptions on the back of the photos, often complaining about trees being cut down or property taxes being raised due to the new developments, which she found undesirable. She also documented the behavior of her cats.

“Mr. Buddy is everybody’s pal,” Cerutti wrote on the back of one photograph. “He pretends to nurse the kittens, and cleans all of the kittens every day.”

Police reportedly do not think Cerutti fell victim to foul play, but has not yet been established just how she came to be trapped in the wall. At least one of her neighbors, according to the Chronicle, wondered if someone put her there.