What to Know
- Responding firefighters and police officers entered a South Philly 3rd-floor apartment after a woman's family asked for a welfare check.
- Once firefighters and police got inside they found the woman dead, burned over much of her body.
- It is unclear if foul play was involved.
A family hadn’t heard from a South Philadelphia woman for days, so they called 911.
Philadelphia police tried to get into the woman’s apartment at the corner of 18th and Mifflin streets early Thursday. When they couldn’t get inside the locked unit, they called firefighters.
Responding firefighters used a ladder to access the 49-year-old woman’s third floor unit through a window around 1:45 a.m., police said. Inside they found the woman dead with burns over about 80% of her body.
Medics pronounced the woman dead at the scene.
There were no signs of active fire when authorities arrived at the scene.
Police, the fire marshal and arson investigators searched for answers as to if foul play was involved.
