Boston woman searching for information on sister’s sudden death

BOSTON — Tammy Arias of Jamaica Plan has been trying to find out what really happened to her sister, Diane Barrera Arias, ever since Diane was found dead in her West Springfield apartment on January 25.

But, more than five weeks later, Arias tells me, she’s not getting any clear answers.

“My family and I, we deserve closure,” Tammy said. “They [West Springfield Police] ruled [her death] as an overdose the first night they found her. And we just want to know, why? What came up to that conclusion?”

Tammy tells me when she first heard about her sister’s death, the facts didn’t add up.

Tammy admits Diane battled addiction in the past, but she adds Diane received treatment and had turned her life around with a job and an apartment.

Tammy’s suspicions grew days after her sister’s death.

After Diane’s death, her family went to the apartment to clean it out. And what they saw has left them shaken.

Tammy tells me, instead of finding the neat apartment Diane always kept, she found the place in complete disarray.

And when she moved a plastic bag in front of the stove, she was stunned.

“We found blood and hair on the floor of the kitchen,” Tammy said. " It really put us in a shock.”

A preliminary death certificate lists Diane’s cause and manner of death, as pending.

A state official tells me, it can take as many as 90 days for toxicology test results to come back and for the final death certificate to be amended.

In the meantime, Tammy and her family are enduring a painful wait.

“If they find anything, I’m OK with the decision, as long as they do a fair investigation. I just want to know that, out of respect for her. She deserves that. My family deserves that,” Tammy Arias said.

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