An elderly Calhoun County woman found dead in her Sandy Run home last week apparently predicted with uncanny accuracy circumstances surrounding the end of her life.

“She did make a statement about that,” Calhoun County Coroner Donnie Porth said. “At that time, she made the statement she really didn’t know anyone and if she died, no one would ever know about it.”

Since Thursday’s discovery of a woman’s skeletal remains in the Sandy Run residence, investigators have been trying to positively identify the deceased person.

Officials are still attempting to confirm the woman is 74-year-old Mary Sue Merchant. They say they have no reason to think otherwise; her name is on the property deed. But they want to be certain.

So far, though, an elderly Newberry woman is the only person who says she knew Merchant. They were sisters-in-law, Porth said.

The woman told Porth that after Merchant’s husband died, she had tried to get Merchant to return to Newberry.

“They were talking about the possibility of Mrs. Merchant moving back to Newberry where she’s originally from,” Porth said. “The reason she wanted her to move back was so she could keep an eye on her.”

In talking with the Newberry woman, Porth learned Merchant was concerned about passing away and no one knowing she had died. She told her sister-in-law she knew no one and had no friends, the coroner said.

As it turns out, it appears Merchant did die without anyone noticing. Porth believes the remains had been inside the Old Swamp Road residence for more than a year.

Merchant filled a prescription on Oct. 20, 2007, Porth said. Then she seems to have simply vanished, he said. No one checked on her, no one missed her at Christmas or any other holidays. The power to the residence was eventually shut off because the power bills went unpaid. The mail at her post office box was returned. And in December, her house was put up for sale because of the delinquent taxes owed on it.

Merchant’s only companion at her death, a faithful pet dog, is believed to have later died by her side. Its skeletal remains were found with her.

Sheriff Thomas Summers said investigators went through the house and property. He said there was no evidence of foul play.

It appears the woman died of natural causes, Porth said. But who was she?

Other than the Newberry woman, investigators haven’t found anyone -- not a blood relative, not a neighbor, not a friend -- who could direct the investigation to a confirmation of Merchant’s identity.

She’s believed to have been childless, and no one seems to have known her in the Calhoun County area. The woman’s late husband, David, was a corrections officer who led a sheltered life because he feared retribution from former inmates, Porth said.

The residence itself is almost obscured by brush, is about 125 yards off the street and barely visible through heavy foliage and trees.

On Thursday, Calhoun County deputies found the skeletal remains inside the residence where Merchant had lived with her husband before his death in the 1980s.

The woman was discovered after Gaston resident Thomas Kohn notified authorities. Kohn put money down for the property at a delinquent tax sale on Dec. 1, 2008 and drove by the house periodically, he said.

“I noticed the car there, and the car did not move,” Kohn said last week. “I became concerned that something may be wrong and asked the sheriff’s department to do a welfare check. It is a sad situation. I wish somebody would have been checking on the woman.”

Porth has pieced together through the sister-in-law only limited information about Merchant. She graduated from Newberry College in 1955. She moved with her husband to Columbia before the couple bought property in Calhoun County. She has a sister in California named “Doris” with whom she had had no contact for years because of a falling out between them. Porth doesn’t have the sister’s last name, but he’s still searching.

In the meantime, the coroner is trying to officially give a name to the remains of the individual discovered in Sandy Run. Mary Sue Merchants’ maiden name was Ruff.

It would be simple enough to match dental records. But authorities don’t know where Merchant had the fillings and other light dental work done.

Porth is asking that any Midlands dentist office from Newberry to Orangeburg that had a patient by the name of Mary Sue Ruff or Mary Sue Merchant to contact the Calhoun County Coroner’s Office at 803-655-5636.

“It’s just a shame,” Porth said. “She didn’t know anybody.”

T&D Staff Writer Richard Walker can be reached by e-mail at rwalker@timesanddemocrat.com or by phone at 803-533-5516.

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