An 81-year-old woman was found dead in her house at 226 N. Main Street Monday morning. Sylvania police asked the Georgia Bureau of Investigation to help determine the cause of death.
Ramona Altman Lariscy lived alone. Neighbors who had not seen her for several days and could not get her to answer her door called police to check on her. Officers broke into the house shortly before 11 a.m. and found her body.
Details were not being released as the investigation continued. Lt. Tony A. Taylor of the city police department did say there was no apparent forced entry into the house – all the windows and doors were secured.
An autopsy was scheduled for later this week.
The house that’s close to the street has two acres of land with it, extending north to Lariscy Lane. Nothing appeared abnormal from the outside as city and state officers and firefighters worked at the house Monday.
Lariscy was frequently seen walking in the neighborhood, going to buy a newspaper or groceries.
Taylor advised people to check on their elderly neighbors frequently, especially when the heat index is higher than 100 degrees.
Lariscy was a native of Bulloch County and was married to the late Joseph Edgar Lariscy Jr. She studied at the Georgia Teachers College in Statesboro, now Georgia Southern University, and was a homemaker.
She was a member of the First United Methodist Church of Sylvania and enjoyed working in her yard with flowers and shelling pecans.
Survivors include her two sons and daughter-in-law: Joseph E. and Ruthann Lariscy of Athens and Terry Lariscy of Atlanta; and five grandchildren: Joseph Lariscy of New York and Rachel Lariscy, Mary Lariscy, Kevin Lariscy and Betsy Lariscy, all of Athens.
She was preceded in death by her parents -- John Buren Altman and Ethel Johnson Altman -- and three siblings -- Buren Altman, J.G. Altman and Frank Altman.
Graveside services will be held at 2 p.m. Friday, July 16, at the Screven Memorial Cemetery, with the Rev. Karen Zeigler officiating. A visitation will be held an hour prior to the service at the Screven Chapel of Joiner Anderson Funeral Home.