Bellevue Police on March 9 found the body of a deceased 84-year-old woman in her home at Bayview Village Apartments, but they missed the decaying corpse of her daughter.

Investigators from the King County Medical Examiner’s Office went looking for clues about Margaret Wilkerson’s next of kin on Monday, but discovered the remains of her 62-year-old daughter Terry Wilkerson instead.

The body was “in such a state of decomposition that it was not recognizable as human remains,” according to Bellevue Police spokesman Ofc. Greg Grannis.

Police said there are no signs of foul play.

“We have no reason to believe this was anything other than a grim tragedy,” Grannis said.

The cause of death for the mother has not been released, but the daughter died of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, according to medical examiners.

Police entered the apartment on March 9 after neighbors reported a bad odor coming from the home and newspapers stacked at the doorstep.

That’s when they found the mother lying dead in her bathroom.

“Because we found the deceased person we expected to find, the smell made sense,” Grannis said.

Investigators from the King County Medical Examiner’s Office returned a week later to search for information about the mother’s next of kin and found that the foul odor was still lurking.

They found her daughter’s decaying remains on the cluttered apartment floor.

Grannis said it was evident from the state of the apartment that someone living there was a compulsive hoarder.

“There were stacks of junk everywhere,” he said.

Police say the daughter may have been her mother’s caregiver.

“We don’t know what the mother’s state of mind was, so we can’t account for why she didn’t call us,” Grannis said.

Police suspect the mother may have been unaware of her daughter’s death.

“This whole thing is sad and tragic,” Grannis said.

Medical examiners determined that the daughter probably died a month before her mother.

The Bayview Village apartment complex is owned by the city of Bellevue, but a private company based out of Seattle manages the property.