No sign of trauma in 67-year-old's death

NIAGARA FALLS, N.Y. (WIVB) - The hope was an autopsy would reveal how a grandmother in Niagara Falls died, but the exam has only lead to more questions.

Niagara Falls Police originally were calling the death of Judith Burr suspicious, but it is looking less so now that an autopsy report found no signs of trauma to her body.

On Wednesday, a search party of more than 200 people found the woman's body in a wooded area about 50 yards from 102nd Street near Colvin Boulevard on the Niagara Falls/Wheatfield border. She had been missing since last Friday and was last seen by her husband at around 12:30 Friday afternoon.

Her car was seen pulling into a senior center parking lot Friday afternoon about five blocks from the woods. Authorities will know more when toxicology reports are completed. The Niagara County Medical Examiner will try and determine if she had a stroke.

News 4 has learned that the 67-year-old grandmother may have been depressed over the loss of some of her hair. But her relatives say she was generally in good health and good spirits. Right now no one can explain how she ended up in the woods, or why.

Her cousin, Tammy Cote, said, "It wasn't like her. She hated the cold. She didn't walk. This was a woman all the years I grew up that would sit in someone's house for a visit and never take her coat off. This is just not logical for her."

Police have asked to put a rush on the toxicology tests, but it may take weeks before the results are returned.