Where's the mortgage?

[Arcinio Arauz]

I'm working on tax deed sales in my area. My goal is to get to the owners before the tax deed sale date and buy from them directly. I spoke with a home owner today that is willing to sell me her property super cheap but she thinks there may a mortgage. She doesn't know. I know... LOL. So I checked records and found an old deed of trust from 1997. It wasn't clear on a lien holder or an amount owed. I had an RE agent also check for me and...same thing. Tomorrow I'll call my title company and run a more precise title check.
Is it possible that lenders "forget". I would assume that if there was a mortgage agaist the property, then the lender would have paid the back taxes by now to secure its interest in the property versus letting it go for auction.