Body of woman found after 8 years

SYDNEY - When an elderly Australian woman apparently vanished from view eight years ago, no one bothered to call the police. Not her relatives, her neighbors or government officials, who kept paying her welfare benefits into a bank account that sat untouched.

New South Wales state police said on Wednesday that they discovered the woman's skeletal remains on the floor of her Sydney home on Tuesday, after her sister-in-law finally called them to report that she had not heard from the woman - who would have turned 87 next month - since 2003.

"It's sad that the woman appears to have died several years ago without anyone noticing," said police Acting Superintendent Zoran Dzevlan.