Coroner: Playboy playmate found dead in home died of heart disease

Yvette Vickers, a onetime Playboy playmate and actress whose badly decomposed body was found inside a Benedict Canyon home, died from heart disease, coroner's officials said Saturday.

The body of the 82-year-old Vickers' was found two weeks ago in an upstairs bedroom in her home in the 10000 block of Westwanda Drive, according to Assistant Coroner Chief Ed Winter.

The body was so badly decomposed it could not be immediately determined if it was that of a man or a woman, he said.

Coroner's officials said Saturday that Vickers has been determined to have died a natural death caused by arteriosclerotic cardiovascular disease.

The neighbor who found the body said she went to check the home because she saw old letters and cobwebs in Vickers' mailbox.

"The letters seemed untouched and were starting to yellow," she told the Los Angeles Times. "I just had a bad feeling."

In addition to posing for Playboy, Vickers appeared in B-movies such as "Attack of the 50-Foot Woman" and "Attack of the Giant Leeches."