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Authorities suspect that the elderly and ailing parents of Dune and The Walking Dead actress Alicia Witt may have died of hypothermia after their lifeless bodies - one of them clad in a coat - were found inside their Massachusetts home this week.
Robert Witt, 87, and Diane Witt, 75, were discovered unresponsive on Monday, after their 46-year-old daughter asked a relative to perform a welfare check on them because she was unable to reach them.
Police said they had received reports that Witt's parents had been experiencing 'furnace problems' and were using a space heater to heat their dilapidated home, according to the Worcester Telegram and Gazette.
Investigators tell Boston 25 they now believe that hypothermia - a dangerous drop in body temperature caused by a prolonged exposure to cold - possibly played a role in the couple's deaths.
One of the parents was said to have been discovered wearing a coat indoors. No obvious signs of trauma were found on the bodies, and no traces of poisonous gases such as carbon monoxide were detected during a subsequent inspection.