"I had no idea that their heat had gone out," Witt revealed previously, adding she hadn't been "allowed" inside their home for "well over a decade."
update 6:30am PT 2/25/22
According to The Telegram & Gazette in Worcester, Massachusetts, Alicia Witt's parents died from exposure to the cold.
Per the state medical examiner, the cause of death listed on the death certificates for Robert Witt, 87, and Diane Witt, 75 was "probably cardiac dysrhythmia" due to the cold.
The two were found dead in their Worcester, Massachusetts home in December following a welfare check. One of them was wearing their coat inside at the time of their death.
In a post shared to her Facebook in late January, Witt said she "had no idea that their heat had gone out. i will never understand how or why they made the choice not to tell me this, not to let me help them with this. my heart is broken."
original story below
Alicia Witt is opening up about her relationship with her late parents Robert and Diane Witt, who were found dead in their Worcester, Massachusetts home in December following a welfare check.
The actress, known for her work on "Cybill," "The Walking Dead," "Nashville" and the film "Urban Legend," shared a lengthy post on Facebook on Tuesday, in which she addressed some of the "misconceptions" about her parents deaths she's seen "rolling around" over the past month.
Her post included a carousel of images featuring the family in happier times. "It still doesn't feel real," the 46-year-old actress began her caption.
"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 continued, "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."
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"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, before thanking everyone who has reached out with words of support.
She then turned her attention to the "circumstances around my parents' sudden passings," attempting to set the record straight on a few things and explain her seemingly strained relationship with her mother and father.
"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," she continued. "I never imagined I would have to talk about this publicly - much less, amidst overwhelming floods of grief."
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View StoryAccording to the actress, she "hadn't been allowed inside" her parents' home for "well over a decade" -- and refused her help whenever she "offered to have something repaired for them." She said she "begged, cried, tried to reason with them" and even "tried to convince them to let me help them move," only for them to become "furious" with her as they told her she had "no right to tell them how to live their lives and they had it under control."
"It was not for a lack of trying on my part, or the part of other people who loved them," she continued. "My parents were not penniless. They were fiercely stubborn, beautifully original souls, and with that, they made choices - choices that I couldn't talk them out of. I did help them, in all the ways I could - in all the ways they would let me."
Witt went on to call them "very sharp, very independent, very capable adults" who were "determined to do things their own way," and said the idea of taking legal action to help them "truly felt like it would have destroyed them."
"I had no idea that their heat had gone out. I will never understand how or why they made the choice not to tell me this, not to let me help them with this," Witt continued. "my heart is broken."
"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," she concluded. "They weren't willing to make different ones."
She ended her post by revealing the last words they said to each other were "I love you."
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View StoryWitt suffered the "unimaginable" tragedy in December of last year after she had a relative check on her parents after not hearing from them for several days.
"I reached out to a cousin who lives close to my parents to check on them. Sadly, the outcome was unimaginable," she said in a statement at the time. "I ask for some privacy at this time to grieve and to wrap my head around this turn of events, and this surreal loss."
According to the Worcester Telegram & Gazette, police came to aid the relative in checking the home, where officers found the couple dead. Police said there "was no trauma" and firefighters on the scene found no evidence of noxious gasses, including carbon monoxide.
Autopsies determining cause of death have not been made public, though Fox 25 Boston reported authorities suspected hypothermia, adding that that one of the victims was found wearing a coat in their home.