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TAUNTON, MASSACHUSETTS

Local police said interested buyers arrived for the 5 p.m. foreclosure auction while Carlene Balderrama's body was still inside.

Police in Taunton said Carlene Balderrama used her husband's high-powered rifle to kill herself Tuesday afternoon, after faxing the letter at 2:30 p.m.

The mortgage company called police, who found Balderrama's body at 3:30 p.m. in her brown-shingled raised ranch house. The auction was scheduled to start at 5 p.m. and interested buyers arrived at the property in Taunton, about 35 miles south of Boston, while Balderrama's body was still inside, according to police chief Raymond O'Berg.

Police did not immediately release the name of the mortgage company. O'Berg said Balderrama's fax read, in part, "By the time you foreclose on my house I'll be dead."

O'Berg also said a suicide note found next to Balderrama told her husband, John, and 24-year-old son to "take the (life) insurance money and pay for the house."

Joe Whitney, who works with Balderrama's husband, a plumber, said Balderrama handled the bills and her husband didn't know about the foreclosure.

"John didn't even know about it, that's the surprise," Whitney said told The Boston Globe. "It's just one of those awful, awful tragic events."

Neighbors on this forested side street said the family had lived in the two-story, brown-shingled, raised ranch for about four years.

Noreen Mendes, who lived about four houses down the street from Balderrama, said she often stopped and chatted with her. Mendes said Balderrama never mentioned any financial problems, but often spoke about repairs the family was making to their house. Two weeks ago, a contractor came to the house to give Balderrma an estimate on a roof replacement, Mendes said.

"She was just so sweet, so nice. I never realized she had any problems, so it is just shocking," Mendes said.

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