A woman and her small son lay dead for two years at their downtown apartment before being discovered by police on Monday, the Beijing Evening News reported Wednesday.

Neighbors said the woman lived alone with her son, who was 5 or 6 years old, and they had not seen her husband for three or four years. The last time neighbors in Jingtai Dongli compound in Dongcheng district saw them was in early 2011. The woman's mother-in-law asked police to open the door. Police took away some of the appliances to investigate the cause of death.