Decomposed Body May be Missing Woman
Thursday, Jan 7, 2010 | Updated 3:03 PM PST
Margot Walters
An autopsy performed Thursday failed to determine the cause of death or the identity of a body found in an Aliso Viejo park near the home of a 76-year-old woman who walked away after a July 17 fight with her husband and disappeared, a sheriff's spokesman said.
Jim Amormino of the Orange County Sheriff's Department said the body was so badly decomposed that the coroner may have to use dental records or fingerprints -- after re-hydrating the finger tips -- to determine if the body is that of Margo Walters, who left her home about 3 a.m. July 17 after a spat with her husband, Egon Walters.
Egon Walters told reporters the verbal tiff was minor and he would never harm his wife.
The body was found about 10 feet down an embankment, near a bike path that runs along Aliso Creek in Woodfield Park, Amormino said. It was about 1 1/2 miles from the home the couple shared, Amormino said.
The location sheds no light on where the woman, if it turns out to be Walters, may have been headed in the early morning hours of July 17, Amormino said.
Detectives remained at the scene for several hours Thursday morning, but Amormino said he did not know what relevant evidence may have been found.
A bicyclist in the area smelled a foul odor Wednesday evening and called 911, an Orange County Sheriff's Department sergeant said.
Search dogs discovered the body a short time later, he said.
Police had earlier conducted a massive search for the woman in canyon areas near the woman's home, and a larger search was scheduled for Sunday, he said.
The woman lived at home with her husband and an adult son, Amormino said.
Until further tests on the body are completed, authorities cannot confirm the body is that of the missing woman.
"I hate to say there's a strong suspicion, (because) we just don't know," Amormino said.
Walters was described as 5 feet 6, 130 pounds, with brown hair and gray eyes, Amormino said.
Amormino said Walters filed a report with the sheriff's department alleging that between Aug. 8, 2008, and January 2009, about $72,000 was charged to her credit card account.
Amormino said investigators turned the case over to Bank of America investigators when they could not verify the transactions.
