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From property investigation to major spruce-up

In 2011, Nancy Poore Tufts, a 101-year-old resident of Prince George’s County, got a gardening posse of law enforcement officials who banded together to clean out overgrowth, dense weeds and fallen trees. In September 2012, officers said goodbye to Tufts, who died at home with police, firefighters and neighbors at her side.

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 July 30, 2011

Nancy Tufts, 101, of Fort Washington, with Sgt. Matt Barba. Barba was one of the crew who helped fix up the 14-acre property on the water. Detectives Tammy Irons and Jennifer Ivy discovered Tufts some weeks earlier as they were investigating a rash of burglaries and mistook her overgrown property for an abandoned "stash" house.

Carol Guzy / THE WASHINGTON POST

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