Alicia Witt Parents’ Sudden Cause Of Death Revealed By Autopsy

Actress Alicia Witt has appeared in popular films like 1984’s “Dune” and AMC’s “The Walking Dead.”

Her father, Robert Witt, 87, and her mother, Diane Witt, 75, were found dead in their home in Worcester, Massachusetts on December 20, only days before the Christmas holiday. Witt grew concerned about her parents after she had not heard from them in several days. She asked her cousin to do a wellness check, who found them both deceased in their home.

“I reached out to a cousin who lives close to my parents to check on them. Sadly, the outcome was unimaginable,” she told Worchester’s Telegram & Gazette. “I ask for some privacy at this time to grieve and to wrap my head around this turn of events, and this surreal loss.”

Their death became a mystery to many, especially when officials revealed that there was no trauma found on either of the body and they were otherwise believed to be in good health.

Although the police have reported the death was “not suspicious,” it would be months until the world would eventually find out the truth.

According to Worcester police, authorities were summoned to the home shortly after 9 P.M. after a family member requested assistance doing a wellness check. Once police obtained access to the home, they found the couple deceased. No cause of death was immediately identified. Lieutenant Sean Murtha stated, “There was no trauma” but did not offer any more details.

After police officers learned that the couple had been reportedly having furnace problems, they brought in firefighters in order to check the air quality inside the home. However, Worcester Fire Deputy Chief Adam Roche could not find any noxious gases present inside the home, stating, “There were no signs of carbon monoxide.”

According to the couple’s official death certificate, they both died due to exposure to the cold. The official cause of death was listed as “probable cardiac dysrhythmia,” according to the state medical examiner’s office.

As previously stated, police were aware at the time of their death that the furnace had not been working properly and the home was not getting any heating, despite the chilly winter season. Last month, Alicia Witt took to Instagram to say that their death “still doesn’t feel real.”

“it’s been a month since i got scared, not having heard back from them, and called to have them checked on. waiting, phone in hand, praying fervently that the next call would be from them, angry i’d gotten someone else involved,” she wrote. “knowing as soon as i heard the detective’s voice on the other line that they were gone. knowing i would never hear their voices again. beginning the rest of my life of finding them on the breeze, in a song, in a dream.”

“i am deeply grateful for the gift of having been able to quietly travel to Worcester earlier this month for a beautiful service and burial, to mourn and to celebrate them in total privacy,” she continued. i will forever be indebted to Mercadante Funeral Home for going to great lengths to make this possible.”

“thank you, also, to all those who have reached out with your memories about my parents,” she added. “they were brilliant educators, deeply kind, curious, intuitive, wise, young at heart, funny - there will never be enough adjectives to describe them.”

“the circumstances around my parents’ sudden passings have become fodder for press, and there are some misconceptions rolling around - understandably so,” she admitted in the post, dated January 25. “this is very delicate for me to write because i’m wanting to honor their privacy, which they held so tightly. there’s an awful irony in the fact that, because of the very lengths they went to in order to protect their privacy in life - that privacy has been stripped away in death. i never imagined i would have to talk about this publicly - much less, amidst overwhelming floods of grief…”

Although Alicia Witt has had roles in “Orange Is the New Black,” “Twin Peaks,” and “Mr. Holland’s Opus,” her mother, Diane Witt, was also a celebrity in her own right back in the 1980s. The late Diane Witt was in the Guinness Book of World Records after she grew her hair out to be more than ten feet long! At the time, her children and her husband used to help her maintain her hair, which she braided and wore on the top of her head.