Worcester

‘It Still Doesn't Feel Real': Actor Alicia Witt Pays Tribute to Her Parents

Her parents were found dead inside their home in Worcester by police after she hadn't heard from them in several days and asked a relative to check on them

A file photo of actress Alicia Witt.
Getty Images, File

Actor Alicia Witt shared an emotional tribute Tuesday to her parents, who were found dead in their Massachusetts home last month.

Her parents were found dead inside their home in Worcester by police in December after she hadn't heard from them in several days and asked a relative to check on them. The deaths of Robert Witt, 87, and Diane Witt, 75, were not considered suspicious, police said at the time.

"it still doesn't feel real," Witt wrote in a social media post Tuesday. "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. 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."

She said she quietly traveled to Worcester earlier this month for a service and burial for her parents. She thanked everyone who reached out with memories about her parents, saying they were "brilliant educators, deeply kind, curious, intuitive, wise, young at heart, funny - there will never be enough adjectives to describe them."

Witt said she hadn't been allowed inside her parents' home for "well over a decade." Every time she offered to have something repaired, they refused to allow workers into the house, telling her she had no right to tell them how to live their lives and that they had it all under control.

She said her parents had money, but were "fiercely stubborn, beautifully original souls, and with that, they made choices - choices that i couldn't talk them out of."

Witt said she still struggles with what else she could have done, short of petitioning the court system to take control of "two otherwise very sharp, very independent, very capable adults."

"our last words to each other were 'i love you'. that part was simple; never in doubt. they loved me so. i loved them so," she added.

After their death, Witt said she learned that her parents' heat had gone out, but they chose not to tell her or ask for help.

"and even if i could have had a crystal ball and looked into the future- if i could have said to them 'you are going to break my heart and the hearts of all who love you with a worst-case scenario ending if you don't let us help you' - i still think they would have made the same choices. they weren't willing to make different ones," she said.

There were reports the couple had been having furnace problems and were using a space heater, police said at the time, but firefighters said there were no signs of carbon monoxide in the home. There were also no obvious signs of trauma.

Witt made her acting debut at age 7 in 1984's "Dune" and has also appeared in "Orange Is the New Black," "Twin Peaks" and "The Walking Dead."

She is also a classically trained pianist and recording artist whose latest album "The Conduit" was released in the fall.

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