IT'S shameful that an elderly woman had been dead for eight years before anyone realised, Police Minister Mike Gallacher says.

Police discovered Natalie Wood's skeletal remains on the floor of an upstairs bedroom of a house in Surry Hills, in inner-Sydney, on Tuesday afternoon. She would have been 87 in August.

At a press conference in Sydney today, Mr Gallacher called on Sydney to reinvigorate its neighbourhood watch programs.



"The death eight years ago now of an elderly lady ... really does highlight the need for this state and indeed our community to work closer at building relationships with our community," Mr Gallacher said.



"To hear today that an elderly lady can pass away, be dead for eight years and for Centrelink to still be sending cheques to her bank account and for those cheques not to be cashed - surely that must set off the alarm bells within government."



Mr Gallacher also took a swipe at local government, who he said should have noticed rates were not being paid on the woman's Surry Hills home.



The house was locked and furnished but looked like no-one had been in there for several years.



On one side of the home there was a laneway and the other neighbour had not seen the woman well before 2003. They believed the house was unoccupied, police said.

Superintendent Zoran Dzevlan said today that police went to Ms Wood's home in Surry Hills at lunchtime on Tuesday where they forced their way in and found her skeletal remains on the floor in her bedroom.



He confirmed the last that anyone saw her was back in 2003 and said she had not been in touch with her brother or his wife after a family dispute.



He said Ms Wood's sister-in-law did not go around to the 86-year-old's house but contacted police yesterday because something had happened within the family this week. He would not say what that was.



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However he revealed that while the electricity to the house had been turned off, Ms Wood had still been receiving Centrelink payments which had been going into her bank account but had had untouched.



“It’s just very sad. It’s tragic,” superintendent Dzevlan said.



“I would like to put a message out there to the community to keep an eye on our neighbours, to keep a lookout and see what’s happening, especially with the elderly.”



He said officers were checking with utility company to see when the last bills were paid. Ms Wood’s mail had been redirected years ago to her sister-in-law who lives in the Sydney area but that stopped some time ago.



Officers who made the grim discovery said there was no sign of mail piling up at her house. She had been described as reclusive.

Originally published as 'Shameful' bones not found for 8 years