Twin sisters, 73, 'found dead in home from natural causes' uncovers former showbiz career as detectives hunt for family

1950s entertainers found in separate rooms of their shared California home

Twins had been dead for 'at least several weeks' before they were found



Sisters spent their last decades as recluses, police say

A pair of 73-year-old twin sisters and former television stars had been dead for 'at least several weeks' before police found them in their California home after succumbing to what investigators believe were natural causes just a short time between one another.



Former 1950s entertainers Patricia and Joan Miller were found in separate rooms of their shared South Lake Tahoe home late last month but foul play has been ruled out.

Medical investigators have not been able to determine how or when the women died but their decomposed bodies suggest they had been dead for at least several weeks when they were found, said detective Matt Harwood.

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Together: The bodies of twins Patricia and Joan Miller were found in the California home they shared for almost 40 years

There was no blood, no signs of struggle and nothing indicated that the women had persistent health troubles.Toxicology reports will not be available for at least two more months.

After a life in showbiz, dancing and singing on TV as well as at several military bases with their mother on piano, the twins spent their last decades as recluses who never married, say police.



Detectives are now on a hunt for their next of kin.

Discovered on February 26 after not responding to a home welfare check, El Dorado County Sheriff's deputies say they found one of the sisters in her downstairs bedroom and the other in the hallway outside.

Unable to find living relatives of the two women, police have combed their home for information from documents and pictures.

One photograph showed the women as young girls sitting on the lap of the American singer and actor Bing Crosby.

Another showed them wearing tap dancing shoes.

The two women regularly appeared on the weekly television show, The Hoffman Hayride, with their parents 'heavily involved in their entertainment business', according to the sheriff's office.



Friends tell deputies that the sisters were dependent on each other throughout their lives though being from Portland, Oregon originally, they may have family still within the area.

Detective Harwood said it was as if the two sisters, long each other's only companion, could not live without each other.

'My perception is one died and the other couldn't handle it,' said the detective, who has been unable to identify any close friends or family members to inform of the sisters' deaths.

'It appears purely natural, but we are still trying to piece it all together.'



It is unusual for police to release the names of the dead without first informing their relatives, but the sisters' shrouded lives made that impossible, he added.



'The circumstance surrounding their death is somewhat of an enigma,' he said.

'These two only ever had each other, and we would like, at least for their sake, to notify their family.'

The detective told the Los Angeles Times: 'I think they need to have some family know that they’re gone.

'I think they deserve that.'

Icon: Detectives found a photograph of the sisters as children, sitting on the lap of actor and singer Bing Crosby, pictured

The deaths have confused some residents in the resort town of South Lake Tahoe, where homeowners tend to be close-knit and the sisters' reclusiveness had long inspired questions and concern.



In the past year, there were hints that something was amiss at the Miller home.

A neighbour spotted an ambulance at the house a year ago and assumed they had fallen ill.

Someone asked police to check regularly on the house. When someone arrived on February 25 for a routine check, no one answered the door.

The next day, police forced their way in and found the bodies.



There was no blood, no signs of struggle. Nothing indicated that the women had persistent health troubles.

Their longtime home was not disheveled or unkempt - potential signs of mental or physical illness.



Detective Harwood said he called a nearby centre for the elderly to see if the sisters were visitors, but no one there had heard of them.

He checked with Meals on Wheels volunteers, but the sisters did not appear to have received their services.

The only relative he found in his preliminary searches was the sisters' deceased mother.



As news of the deaths spread, former South Lake Tahoe residents called police to report that they had lived near the sisters for decades in some cases, and had hardly seen them.

One sent in a postcard that claimed the sisters were the only remaining members of their family after their mother's death and their brother died at war.

Calls made to several longtime residents and social groups in the area turned up little, as many community leaders said they had never heard of the sisters.



Joan Miller was a senior accounting clerk in the payroll department at the Lake Tahoe Unified School District from 1979 to 1984.

Patricia Miller, who drove a white convertible with red upholstery, worked in the El Dorado County's social services office during that time.



'I never heard of anyone else being in either of their lives,' said Betty Mitchell, 89, who supervised Patricia Miller in the social services office and saw the twins around town.

'They were inseparable and really identical.'



The sisters were said to be friendly and often told stories of their singing adventures.

They told Mrs Mitchell they had performed at Yosemite National Park and when their mother came to visit from Oregon, they all dined at her home.



But the sisters were also guarded. When Mrs Mitchell urged them to join a community choir, they declined. They never discussed their social lives.



'They kept things to themselves,' Mrs Mitchell said. 'I don't even know if they had siblings.'



The sisters never seemed interested in dating or expanding their social spheres. They listed each other as their next of kin, the detective said.



He added: 'All they had was each other and that's actually the way they wanted it.'



Joyce Peterson of the International Twins Association, a social group based in Oklahoma, said she once heard of 100-year-old twins who died within days of each other.



'As a twin, you've got this bond, you're close - almost like a married couple," she said. 'It's a bond no one else can understand."



The Miller twins appeared in poor health recently and possibly had been treated a year ago for dehydration or malnutrition, Detective Harwood said.



Their childhood friend told him that the sisters stopped sending annual birthday cards last year, and when the friend called to enquire about the missing card, the sisters seem disinterested in continuing the relationship.



Neighbours would call and the sisters would say, 'Let me call you right back,' and then wouldn't.



Detective Harwood said: 'They weren't taking care of themselves as they should or could have.'

The precise cause of death for either of the two women has not been determined.

Watch a video of the Hoffman Hayride here: