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Police have recovered the stolen vehicle of a Bethesda woman who was found Thursday morning bound and dead at her home in the 8900 block of Seven Locks Road.

Mary Frances Havenstein, 63, was found by a relative and declared dead by police at the scene.

A relative who had tried to contact Havenstein by phone the day before, visited her house Thursday morning and reported an assault to police at approximately 8:45 a.m. Police said that Havenstein was bound, and that a preliminary investigation revealed than an unknown suspect entered her home.

Police are treating the incident as a suspicious death but have not officially ruled it a homicide.

Havenstein's car, a cream color 2006 Cadillac DTS with Maryland tags, was recovered at 7:30 p.m. Thursday evening on Forston Street at University Boulevard East in Takoma Park. Police said the car is believed to have been taken during the incident at Havenstein's home.

Montgomery County Police spokesman Lt. Paul Starks said robbery detectives are investigating whether there is any connection to a series of other home burglaries of elderly residents in the area. He listed five possible cases beginning in September of last year that could be connected to the incident.

The five previous incidents that could be connected occurred in Bethesda, Chevy Chase, Potomac, and Washington, D.C. Two of the incidents occurred in Bethesda, including one in the Kenwood community on May 7. In all five incidents, the victims were bound by the suspects.

"We're going to see if they can rule this in, or rule this out," Starks said.

Starks said the relative had called the woman the day before but was unable to speak with her. The relative then visited the home to check on the woman.

"The relative came in, saw that Ms. Havenstein was bound, and immediately called police. She did not know for certain the status of her relative when she was calling for help," said police spokeswoman Lucille Baur.

Starks said police were still determining exactly when the incident in the home took place.

Mi-yeon Ann, 48, a resident of Seven Locks Drive who lives next door to the crime scene, said she hadn't seen or heard anything strange before the police arrived Thursday morning.

Ann said she met the woman twice after moving from Korea three months ago. She said the woman welcomed her when she first moved to the neighborhood, and that she also visited the woman with her children. She said she believed the woman lived alone.

"I think (she was) a nice woman," she said. "…She came to the house to introduce herself."

Ann said that friends occasionally visited the woman next door and that she seemed "very happy."

John Miller, a resident of Seven Locks Road, said he was "wondering whether I should have a dog." Miller said he keeps his doors locked and that he has an alarm system.

Miller said it was difficult to interact with people living nearby due to the environment around Seven Locks Drive.

"The problem is that you really don't get to know your neighbors because the traffic is so heavy," he said.