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This is truly a sad story.

Woman lay dead in her flat for more than two years
By Oliver Duff (independent)
Published: 14 April 2006

A woman's decomposing body lay undetected in her flat for more than two years until housing officers came to investigate unpaid rent.

The skeleton of Joyce Vincent, 40, was found clutching a shopping bag and surrounded by Christmas presents she had wrapped but never delivered.

The television and heating were still on at full blast, washing up sat in a bowl in the kitchen, and the fridge was packed with items best before November 2003.

The body was so decomposed that the cause of death could not be determined and she had to be identified through dental records, an inquest heard.

Ms Vincent had lost contact with her brother and sisters and nobody felt her disappearance was worth investigating until January this year when housing officers drilled the lock . The caretaker of the building in Wood Green, north London, described the scene inside as "unreal".

Ms Vincent's next-door neighbour, Mickel Dobbs, a 25-year-old carpenter, became suspicious a year ago after noticing a strange smell - but did nothing about it. "Every time I opened my window I would see strange little black insects crawling through," he said. "My friend used to joke, 'Maybe there's a dead body in there!'"

 

Woah, that is sad... its sad that she died, but also sad that even her relatives didn't even bother investigating after not hearing from her for two years.

I wonder how she died? She died with a bag in her hands, so it was sudden...

 

I knew a guy that was found dead in his garage. They figure he had been there for about a week. That was shocking, but two years is a but unreal. Wouldn't the landlord have become concerned when the rent checks stopped?

 

I think that we have had a few similar cases here - I think that the longest was 6-ish years for a v. old guy.... he had automated payments ofr his rent and such so no one realized anything until.. argh, canpt even remember the reason.

 

I think it sad to see that our era is governed by a total lack of interest of what is happening next door.

 

That really is beyond the pale. Two years? Jeez, summer must've been bad for anyone living nearby. WOuldn;t you worry when you hadn;t seen you neighbour for TWO YEARS?

 

That is heartbreaking

I bet they'll still charge her for the rent though.

 

Last place I lived (was there for exactly 2 years, coincidentally), the only time I spoke to any of my neighbours was when a package got delivered to our house instead of theirs, and I had to go take it over. Otherwise, I wouldn't have known them from Adam (or Eve, for that matter). It's not like I never said "hello" when I saw people or anything, it's just that people in London generally don't seem to respond to a simple greeting. Back home in Somerset, it's quite different. You've got a job to say hello to someone and not hear about their whole bloody family's ailments! A balance would be nice...

 

Agreed. My wife speaks to our neighbors now, but when I was single, I didn't talk much to either of the people who lived in the townhouses adjacent to mine. I'd say "hi" if I happened to see them when I was getting in or out of my car, but that was the extent of the communication. Since these were chance encounters, you really wouldn't remember when the last time you had one, and you wouldn't think anything unusual about not having one in a long time.

Of more concern is the fact that she had a brother and a sister, and that evidently she was close to her family as she had Christmas presents wrapped for them. You would think that someone would have called to check up on her after they didn't see her over the holidays. Of course this was in 2003. You would think that people would really start to get concerned if they didn't see her around the holidays in 2003 - or at any time in 2004 or 2005. The fact that she had Christmas presents is troubling - there was SOMEBODY that she was close enough with to buy a present for - why wasn't she missed?

 

Hmmh, a sad story that is. Althought it's not that unusual for someone to die unnoticed, 2 years is a long time. Especially when she had relatives.
Novadays, it seems, people are becoming more and more isolated. I, myself, for example, refer beind alone and unnoticed. Guess my destiny can be quite the same.
Oh well, I just hope it's not going to happen soon.