An elderly woman died “alone and isolated” after being cut off from the rest of the world during a blizzard in California.
93-year-old Elinor ‘Dolly’ Avenatti from Crestline, a neighborhood in San Bernardino County, was found dead on Monday following a historic snowstorm that saw the region covered in ten feet of snow.
According to the reports, the neighborhood of Crestline was cut off power, and Dolly had no means to contact the outside world after getting trapped inside her home in the mountains.
The woman was discovered lifeless this week after suffering in the cold without access to food for almost two weeks.
“She was feisty and independent and generous to a fault,” the woman’s neighbor, Rhea-Frances Tetley, told the Los Angeles Times as she remembered Avenatti as a kind and giving person who would bake for her neighbors and collect bottles for animal rights groups.
Tetley also revealed that neighbors started checking on the elderly woman and bringing food to her home after the region was cut off the grid.
On Monday, however, no one answered the door when neighbors came knocking.
As Tetley explained, the 93-year-old was found dead near her fireplace, whereas she believes that Elinor most likely died from the cold.
Speaking out was also Avenatti’s family who revealed that the grandmother warned them not to visit due to dangerous road conditions in the area.
They also agreed with Tetley on the cause of death as they admitted that the senior lady “was probably confused as well because she was alone and isolated.”
“If she hadn’t lost power and wasn’t trapped in the house, I 99.99 percent believe she would still be here today. At least she lived a great life and passed away in her happy place,” Valli Bryan Compton, the victim’s great-niece, said in an interview with CBS News.
Avenatti’s passing marks the 12th death caused by the California blizzard.
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