WARE, Mass. (AP) – Authorities are investigating the apparent slaying of an 83-year-old woman found dead at her home on Monday.

Northwest District Attorney Elizabeth D. Scheibel said Rose Ann Martowski was found just before 9:30 a.m. with “visible injuries.”

Investigators believe Martowski was killed between Sunday night and Monday morning, Scheibel said.

Martowski’s daughter, Sylvia Mazur, found her mother after she failed to return her daily morning call.

“I’m just trying to figure things out,” she told The Republican newspaper of Springfield. “I’m sitting here and waiting.”

Neighbor Pat Ransom told the Telegram & Gazette of Worcester that smoke could be seen coming from a downstairs window at Martowski’s home early Monday.

Scheibel would not comment on whether there had been a fire.

Another neighbor, Ruth Mettig, said she and Martowski had once worked together at nearby Mary Lane Hospital, where Martowski worked in the cafeteria.

“She was a wonderful, wonderful person,” Mettig told the Telegram & Gazette.

It was the first slaying in the town of 10,000 since 1996.