New owners of Houston home find human remains in attic wall

An undated photo provided by the Houston Police Department Missing Persons Unit shows Mary Cerruti.  The new owners of a Houston bungalow have discovered human remains in an attic wall that may belong to Cerruti, the previous owner, who went missing at least two years ago.  The residents were moving into the home Saturday, March 4, 2017, when they found a gap in the wall and discovered bones.  Cerruti had last been seen in the spring of 2015. ( Houston Police Department/Houston Chronicle via AP) (The Associated Press)

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This house on Allston Street in the Heights, where human remains were discovered in a wall on Saturday, is shown surrounded by development on Sunday, March 5, 2017, in Houston.  The house was the former residence of 61-year-old Mary Cerruti, who was the last holdout in the neighborhood, refusing to sell to developers who were leveling 1930s bungalows in favor of modern apartments, She went missing in 2015.  The house was foreclosed, repaired and flipped and the new owners discovered human remains inside one of the walls of the home. ( Brett Coomer/Houston Chronicle via AP) (The Associated Press)

HOUSTON – The new owners of a Houston bungalow have discovered human remains in an attic wall that may belong to the previous owner who went missing at least two years ago. 

The residents were moving into the home Saturday when they found a gap in the wall and discovered bones. 

Authorities are trying to determine if the remains are those of 61-year-old Mary Cerruti. 

A bank foreclosed on her home in 2015 after mortgage payments had stopped.  Liens on the property were settled, the house was cleaned out and it was later placed on the market. 

Police Detective Jason Fay tells the Houston Chronicle (http://bit.ly/2lSJcec ) that it's not clear if the victim was killed and placed in the wall, or may have tripped and fallen into the space.