FOUND: Family Of Deceased Twin Sisters starred in 50’s TV show

via AP: It took 11 days and the help of dozens of strangers, but police have finally been able to locate the family of a pair of reclusive twin sisters who were found dead in their California home last month.

The response was overwhelming. Emails and phone calls poured in and with the help of amateur genealogists who read media accounts of the sisters' deaths, investigators tracked down a first cousin and two second cousins late Wednesday.

The cousins hadn't heard from the sisters in years.

"They confirmed pretty much what everyone else told me," Harwood said. "They were pretty reclusive and no one really knows why."

Harwood said the cousins told him they had lost touch with the sisters through the years as other family members passed away.

"They were just sort of the twins that no one had heard from in a long time," he said.

The cousins don't share the sisters' last name, which might be why police had such a hard time finding them. They were tracked down by at-home sleuths, who passed on the family members' contact information to police. In one case, someone called one of the cousins to confirm their blood line before giving the name to Harwood.

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Harwood said the sisters deserved to have their family know about their death, and he was pleased to complete that mission with help from "people from across the country, just your Average Joe wanting to try their hand on genealogy," he said.

"There's no way we could have done it without you guys in the press and literally hundreds of people just calling to help put the pieces together," Harwood said.

One of the second cousins lives in the San Francisco Bay area, and the two other cousins live in Portland, Ore., where the twins grew up.

Harwood said he has yet to find a will, but plans to give some of the twins' personal items, including their mother's furniture and family photo albums, to the cousins.

The discovery of next of kin provides some answers to the twins' mysterious end, but their puzzle is far from solved.

Medical investigators have not been able to determine how or when the women died, but their decomposed bodies suggest they had been dead for at least several weeks when they were found, Harwood said. Toxicology reports likely won't be available for at least two more months.

The twins were the daughters of Fay Lang and Elmon Gordon Miller, who went by the name "Bud" and was born in 1895 in Bremen, Ky., Harwood said. Their father was a dairy salesman in Oakland, Calif., at one point, Harwood said.

The sisters were never married and didn't have children or pets. They seemed to prefer only each other's company. They purchased their four-bedroom home together in 1976 and may have been each other's only close friend.

Joan Miller was a senior accounting clerk in the payroll department at the Lake Tahoe Unified School District from 1979 to 1984. Patricia Miller, who drove a white convertible with red upholstery, worked in the El Dorado County's social services office during that same time.

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Deputies in El Dorado County are trying to locate anyone having family ties with two recently deceased twins who were regularly featured on a 1950s TV show.

Patricia and Joan Miller, 73, were found dead inside their South Lake Tahoe home more than a week ago.

The El Dorado County Sheriff’s Office needs assistance in locating the next of kin of two elderly twins, Patricia and Joan Miller (73 years of age).  Patricia and Joan were discovered deceased in their South Lake Tahoe residence on February 26, 2012.  A definitive cause of death has not been determined, however, foul play has been ruled out. The cause and manner of death is still being investigated by detectives from the El Dorado County Sheriff’s Office and South Lake Tahoe Police Department.

While the El Dorado County Sheriff’s Office does not routinely release the names of deceased individuals without first contacting the next of kin, this case is unique.

Sheriff’s detectives have been unable to locate any relatives of Patricia and Joan Miller and are appealing to the public for help. With the assistance of long time friends and acquaintances, detectives have learned the following:

Patricia and Joan Miller were entertainers in the bay area. They regularly appeared on a weekly television show called “The Hoffman Hayride” in the 1950’s. They also entertained troops at several military bases.

Their parents were heavily involved in their entertainment business. Their mother played the piano for them.

Patricia and Joan Miller were originally from Portland, Oregon. Patricia and Joan reportedly never married. They were nearly always dependent on one another their entire lives.

Information surfaced indicating The Millers might have living relatives in the Portland area, but detectives have not been able to confirm this information.

Anyone with information regarding the Patricia and Joan Miller is asked to contact Detective Matt Harwood at 530-573-3015.

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From the AP:

When they were young, Patricia and Joan Miller sang and danced for Bing Crosby, troops and their friends.

With the assistance of long time friends and acquaintances, El Dorado County Sheriff's Office and South Lake Tahoe Police Department detectives have learned the Miller twins, originally from Portland, Ore., were entertainers in the Bay Area and regularly appeared on the 1950s television show, "The Hoffman Hayride." They also entertained troops at several military bases.

Their parents were heavily involved in their entertainment business. Their mother played the piano for them, according to a statement from local law enforcement.

But as the identical twins grew older, they became less interested in socializing. When people called, the sisters came up with excuses to get off the phone. Without explanation, they stopped sending birthday cards to a childhood friend. And on the rare occasion that they left their home, the two women didn't chat up the neighbors.

Never married and without children or pets, the Miller sisters withdrew into their small, two-story home in California's South Lake Tahoe, where they were found dead last week at age 73, one in a downstairs bedroom, and the other in the hallway just outside.

It was as if the two sisters, long each other's only companion, could not live without each other, said Detective Matt Harwood with the El Dorado County sheriff's office.

"My perception is one died and the other couldn't handle it," said Harwood, who has been unable to identify any close friends or family members to inform of the sisters' deaths. "It appears purely natural, but we are still trying to piece it all together."

Police don't usually release the names of the dead without first informing their relatives, but the sisters' shrouded lives made that impossible, Harwood said.

"The circumstance surrounding their death is somewhat of an enigma," he said. "These two only ever had each other, and we would like, at least for their sake, to notify their family."

The deaths have confused some residents in the resort town of South Lake Tahoe, where homeowners tend to be close-knit and the sisters' reclusiveness had long inspired questions and concern. Police and neighbors alike are struggling to understand why or how two beautiful women with show business in their blood shut themselves up in the same home for nearly 40 years and then seemingly died within hours of each other.

In the past year, clues hinted that something was amiss at the Miller home.

A neighbor spotted an ambulance at the house a year ago and assumed they had fallen ill. Someone asked police to check regularly on the house, to make sure the Millers never fell in need.

When someone arrived Feb. 25 for a routine check, no one answered the door. The next day, police forced their way in and found the bodies.

There was no blood, no signs of struggle. Nothing indicated that the women had persistent health troubles. Their longtime home was not disheveled or unkempt, potential signs of mental or physical illness. Autopsy reports were pending.

Harwood said he called a nearby senior center to see if the sisters were visitors, but no one there had heard of them. He checked with Meals on Wheels volunteers, but it didn't seem that the sisters had received their services. The only relative he found in his preliminary searches was their deceased mother.

As news of the deaths spread, former South Lake Tahoe residents called police to report that they had lived near the sisters for decades in some cases, and had hardly seen them. One sent in a postcard that claimed the sisters were the only remaining relatives of their family after their brother died at war.

Calls Tuesday to several longtime residents and social groups in the area turned up little, as community leaders again and again said they had never heard of the sisters.

"It seems progressively they became more reclusive," Harwood said.

The sisters grew up in Portland, Ore., before moving to the Bay area, Harwood learned. The women briefly appeared on a 1950s TV show called the "The Hoffman Hayride" and posed for a picture with Crosby as children. The twins also entertained troops at military bases, a childhood friend told Harwood.

The sisters never seemed interested in dating or expanding their social spheres. They listed each other as their next of kin, Harwood said.

"They were very, very close and tight-knit," he said. "All they had was each other and that's actually the way they wanted it."

Joyce Peterson of the International Twins Association, a social group based in Oklahoma, said she once heard of 100-year-old twins who died within days of each other.

"As a twin, you've got this bond, you're close — almost like a married couple," said Peterson, of Minnesota, who serves as co-vice president of the group with her identical sister. "It's a bond no one else can understand."

The Miller twins appeared in poor health recently and possibly had been treated a year ago for dehydration or malnutrition, Harwood said.

Their childhood friend told Harwood that the sisters stopping sending annual birthday cards last year, and when the friend called to inquire about the missing card, the sisters seemed disinterested in continuing the relationship.

Neighbors would call and the sisters would say, "Let me call you right back," and then wouldn't.

"They weren't taking care of themselves as they should or could have," Harwood said.

Anyone with information regarding Patricia and Joan Miller can contact Detective Matt Harwood at 530-573-3015.