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When an elderly Australian woman apparently vanished from view eight years ago, no one bothered to call the police. Not her relatives, her neighbors, or government officials, who kept paying her welfare benefits into a bank account that sat untouched.一位澳大利亚老妪在8年前从众人视线中消失，却没有人报警。亲人、邻居、政府官员对此事均不知晓，她的银行账户里定期还会收到各种社会福利。
New South Wales state police said Wednesday that they discovered the woman"s skeletal remains on the floor of her Sydney home on Tuesday, after her sister-in-law finally called them to report that she had not heard from the woman – who would have turned 87 next month – since 2003.新南威尔士州警察局周三表示，在他们接到老人妪妯娌电话报告说，从2003年老人87岁的前一个月开始，她就再也没有听到过老人消息了，警察周二在老妪悉尼家中发现她时，她的尸体还躺在地板上。
"It"s sad that the woman appears to have died several years ago without anyone noticing," said police Acting Superintendent Zoran Dzevlan.“这位女士死了几年都没有被发现的确很令人难过，”警察行动小组负责人Zoran Dzevlan说。
Police were trying to determine exactly when the woman died, but said they didn"t think the death was suspicious.警方曾试图确定老妪具体死亡时间，但是他们说老人应该是自然死亡。
The woman, whose name was not released by police, was a recluse who had no relatives except for her sister-in-law, Dzevlan said. The two had a fight in 2003 and never spoke again. Police have not said why the sister-in-law waited years to report the woman missing, or what prompted her to call now.警方没有透露这位陈尸家中的老妇的姓名，但是我们可以知道，她是自己独自居住，除了一个弟媳以外没有其他亲人，Dzevlan说。她们俩2003年发生了争吵，从此之后就再也没有联系过了。警方并没有说明为什么老妇的弟媳为什么要在8年之后才报告老妪失踪，又是什么让她选择了八年后的今天来报警。
As the years passed, utility companies cut off the power and water to the woman"s home, police said. Centrelink, the government"s welfare agency, continued to pay her benefits to her bank account, which remained untouched. Neighbors told police they hadn"t seen her in years and assumed the house was vacant.警方表示，这些年来水电公司早已将老人住的屋子断水断电。政府福利机构福利署这些年也一直在给老人的银行账户支付养老金。邻居告诉警方说他们已经有很久没有见到过老人，并确定老人的屋子一直是空着的。
Police said the woman"s home was locked and furnished, but looked like no one had lived there for years.警方说老妪家门紧锁，里面有家具，但是能看出来这所房子已经很久没人住过了。
"To hear today that an elderly lady can pass away, be dead for eight years and for Centrelink to still be sending checks to her bank account and for those checks not to be cashed – surely that must set off the alarm bells within government," New South Wales Police Minister Mike Gallacher said.“今天听说一位老人去世8年才被警方发现，而福利署居然仍然在给老人的银行账户发钱，而这些钱并没有被动过——这很明显是在给政府部门敲警钟，”新南威尔士郡警察局局长Mike Gallacher说。
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