When sheriff's deputies forced their way into the secluded house tucked off of Fannie Dorsey Road in Sykesville Tuesday, they discovered two people dead inside, creating alarm among nearby neighbors like Edward Biemiller.
"I was wondering if there's any foul play, because I never knew the people,” said Biemiller, “It's awful unusual for two to die at once. I can understand someone dying, but two together?"
Relatives of 74-year old Frances Bernice Fogle had called police to check on her after they couldn't make contact with her for several weeks.
Once they forced their way inside the home, police discovered her body in a bedroom and the body of an unidentified male on the kitchen floor.
Both had apparently been dead for weeks, and at this point, police will only say there is no evidence they died of anything other than natural causes.
Annette Fleishell says she heard sirens as paramedics from the Winfield Volunteer Fire Company responded there a few weeks ago.
"If they are reclusive and kept to themselves and then maybe it's not surprising,” said Fleishell, “I'm sure the Medical Examiner will find out who died first and who stayed on. I don't know."
Neighbors say one of the first things the homeowner did when he moved in decades ago was to plant trees covering the property, which ultimately secured their privacy both in life and even in death.
"A tree had blown across their driveway and they were cutting it with a bow saw, and I took my chainsaw up there, and he said, 'No. I don't want to fool with it.' So I came on back," said Biemiller, "They didn't want me to bother them. That's all I ever saw them."
The Carroll County Sheriff's Office is withholding the male's identity pending the notification of his next of kin, and it's still awaiting the results of their autopsies to determine what caused their deaths.
