The mummified remains of Playboy pinup girl and movie actress Yvette Vickers, 82, were found in her Hollywood home last week. Investigators suspect she had been dead for up to a year. It is one of the saddest stories we’ve ever heard.

A neighbor, Susan Savage, decided to investigate the house after noticing that the mailbox was way too full, with some items turning yellow. “I just had a bad feeling,” she said. Savage climbed through a broken window, moving through piles of junk before she discovered the remains.

“Nobody should be left alone like that,” said Savage.

Police suspect no sign of foul play, though the official cause of death has yet to be determined.

Yvette was Playboy’s July 1959 centerfold. She played Honey Parker in Attack of the 50 Foot Woman and Liz Walker in Attack of the Giant Leeches. Her last role was 1991’s Evil Spirits. She was also a singer, and released a jazz tribute album dedicated to her parents in 1990. You can hear her on the audio commentary of the DVD release of Attack of the 50 Foot Woman, released in 2007.

Savage said that Vickers was elegant and had “a warm smile.”

“She kept to herself, had friends and seemed like a very independent spirit…  to the end, she still got cards and letters from all over the world requesting photos and still wanting to be her friend.”