Parishioners, neighbors, and family have been frantically looking for 88-year-old Mary Joyce-Bonsignor since she went missing on July 17 from her Brooklyn home. She was finally found Tuesday on the roof of a building across the road from her Bath Beach apartment.

Missing 88-year-old woman discovered after nine days

After going missing on July 17, the remains of Joyce-Bonsignore were finally found at around 11:45 a.m. Tuesday, after 70-year-old Israel Martinez, a resident in the building across from her apartment block, had searched for the source of maggots that had invaded his apartment.

He reportedly headed up to the roof of the building and on opening the door he found the 88-year-old lying on the roof. According to the NYPD, her body showed no sign of assault or injury and it looks like she passed away soon after becoming lost. As reported by CBS News, police added that the city medical examiner is still investigating the cause of her death.

Loss to the close-knit Bath Beach community

Joyce Bonsignore's daughter, Maire Mason, told the New York Daily News that she felt numb after hearing the sad news. The mother and grandmother and her husband, Bobby, were reportedly a fixture in the close-knit neighborhood and her neighbors and friends are still trying to figure out what happened to lead to her death.

One neighbor, 24-year-old Samantha Fasanello, said she believes Joyce-Bonsignore had accidentally gone into the wrong building, believing it was her home and when she went up the stairs to the roof, the door must have locked, trapping her up there.

According to Fasanello, the elderly lady suffered from dementia and was known for regularly wandering off. She said they caught her wandering around so many times and that it was scary.

Family and neighbors had searched without success

Over the weekend, many of the parishioners from the local St. Finbar Catholic Church had formed groups to search for Joyce-Bonsignore in Bath Beach, Bensonhurt, Coney Island, Dyker Heights and Bay Ridge, but with no success.

Fasanello’s father, Anthony, said the searchers had been looking right there, but even God wasn’t able to help them find her. The 58-year-old retired tow truck driver said he had known her for 30 years and was very fond of her. Fasanello said she loved to go outside and that she and her husband enjoyed going to the library. He said Bobby was always with her and that she had been the joy of his life.
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