Steps From Home, Tragedy for 97-Year-Old Twins

Rhode Island sisters apparently froze to death after both falling outside
By Newser Editors,  Newser Staff
Posted Mar 6, 2017 7:37 AM CST
Steps From Home, Tragedy for 97-Year-Old Twins
A passenger waits in the snow to board a bus in Providence, RI, during inclement weather.   (AP Photo/Stew Milne)

A double tragedy took the lives of 97-year-old twin sisters over the weekend in Rhode Island. Jean Haley and Martha Williams were found Saturday morning after both fell outside the door of Haley's home in Barrington on Friday night, reports the Providence Journal. Police don't suspect foul play. The women had little chance of surviving the night's freezing temperatures, which the AP notes were among New England's coldest of the year. Authorities say the women had been out to dinner earlier with their 89-year-old younger sister, and it appears that Williams fell first, perhaps while walking back to her car after dropping her twin sister off.

At that point, authorities think Haley fell while trying to get help. She "may have tripped on a rug on the floor of the garage as she attempted to enter her house to call for assistance,'' says the Barrington police chief. The younger sister wasn't with them at that point, and the home is located on a quiet road and "somewhat isolated," notes the Washinigton Post. A neighbor looking out the window saw Williams the next morning lying near the rear of her vehicle in the driveway. Her sister was found in the garage. (These twin sisters adopted by separate families as babies were finally reunited.)

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