WATERBURY, Conn. (AP) – An 85-year-old woman found stabbed to death on the kitchen floor of the apartment where she lived for more than 30 years may have been the victim of a robbery, Waterbury police said.

Detectives were searching Sunday for information to identify suspects in the death of Laura Orso, a widow found dead in her home Saturday afternoon.

Police believe she was killed sometime Thursday night.

“There’s no question it was a homicide,” Police Superintendent Neil O’Leary said.

A friend who grew concerned that she could not reach Orso visited the apartment, finding the door partly open and Orso’s body on the floor. She had been stabbed several times.

Orso lived alone in the apartment in a 12-unit building in an area of Waterbury described as a quiet and safe neighborhood of modest homes and shops.

“She was very well-known in the community and a very good citizen,” O’Leary said. “It’s an absolute tragedy.”

Orso was a retired Timex payroll department worker who was widowed several years ago. She had no children, but had several nieces and nephews.

One of her nephews, Rocco Orso, said the family was trying to convince her to leave the apartment and move into an elderly care facility. However, she was in good health and wanted to stay in her small second-floor, four-room apartment.

“She really didn’t want to leave her house; she loved it there,” Rocco Orso said.

Orso’s death is Waterbury’s fifth homicide of 2008. An autopsy is scheduled Monday.



Information from: Republican-American, http://www.rep-am.com


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