Foxton woman 'may have been dead for days before found'

Autopsy results have revealed an elderly Foxton woman may have been dead for days before her body was found.

However, after an otherwise-inconclusive examination, police have yet to establish how Winsome Jimson-Newland, 74, died, the Dominion Post reported today.

Mrs Jimson-Newland's body was found in her Whittaker Street home by a man delivering pamphlets, who saw her letterbox had become overloaded, Detective Dennis O'Rourke said yesterday.

Mr O'Rourke said police were "keeping an open mind" about the cause of her death and could not say how long she had been dead for before being found.

Though it was not a homicide investigation, it was too early to eliminate murder as a possibility.

The officer in charge of the investigation, Detective Sergeant Grayson Joines, appealed to anyone who might have had dealings with Mrs Jimson-Newland over the past two weeks to contact police.

- NZPA

* An earlier version of this report incorrectly stated police said she had been dead for four days.