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Dying Alone & Loners' Unnoticed Deaths

Would utilities be cut off though?

I pay my utility and council tax bills by direct debit and they'd keep being paid as long as there is sufficient money in my bank account.
 
Police reported their concerns to the council but it wasn't followed up.

A mentally ill woman was discovered in a "mummified, almost skeletal state" after lying dead for more than three years in her flat, her family say.

Laura Winham, 38, was "abandoned and left to die" by the NHS and social services before her body was found by her brother in May 2021, they claim.

She is thought to have died in November 2017 after being referred to social care twice in the previous years.

The NHS and Surrey Police have been contacted for comment.

Surrey County Council said it was a "truly tragic case" and that it would provide information for an upcoming inquest into the death. Ms Winham, who had schizophrenia, lived in social housing in Woking, Surrey, and had become estranged from her family.

In 2014, a referral was made to Woking Community Mental Health Recovery and her GP, flagging that she appeared to have "untreated mental health issues", her family said. This was not followed up.

After visiting Ms Winham in October 2017, in what was probably the last time anyone saw her alive, Surrey Police officers reported to Surrey County Council that she had been "self-neglecting, had little food, and appeared unaware of how to access local services for help".

Shortly after this visit, the markings on Ms Winham's calendar stopped. One of the last entries read: "I need help." ...

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-surrey-64400776
 
Police reported their concerns to the council but it wasn't followed up.

A mentally ill woman was discovered in a "mummified, almost skeletal state" after lying dead for more than three years in her flat, her family say.

Laura Winham, 38, was "abandoned and left to die" by the NHS and social services before her body was found by her brother in May 2021, they claim.

She is thought to have died in November 2017 after being referred to social care twice in the previous years.

The NHS and Surrey Police have been contacted for comment.

Surrey County Council said it was a "truly tragic case" and that it would provide information for an upcoming inquest into the death. Ms Winham, who had schizophrenia, lived in social housing in Woking, Surrey, and had become estranged from her family.

In 2014, a referral was made to Woking Community Mental Health Recovery and her GP, flagging that she appeared to have "untreated mental health issues", her family said. This was not followed up.

After visiting Ms Winham in October 2017, in what was probably the last time anyone saw her alive, Surrey Police officers reported to Surrey County Council that she had been "self-neglecting, had little food, and appeared unaware of how to access local services for help".

Shortly after this visit, the markings on Ms Winham's calendar stopped. One of the last entries read: "I need help." ...

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-surrey-64400776

Her family did try to contact her,

The family of a woman who lay dead in a flat for more than three years have told how they were unable to have any contact because of privacy laws, and how they eventually found her body.

Laura Winham, 38, had schizophrenia and had refused contact with family who she believed were trying to harm her.

Her brother Roy said the family were unable to get information about her. After repeated attempts to contact her, they found her when they peered through the letter box of her Woking flat. Laura's body was discovered in May 2021 but is thought to have died in November 2017.

Her siblings said she grew up in a loving family and attended school and university, but developed mental health problems and did not return home after the first time she was sectioned. The family took a decision to limit contact because it put her under "enormous stress", but believed she would have a care plan. However, they could not get any information.

"She refused contact from the mental health team with her family, which she was allowed to do, which prevented doctors from speaking to us, or hospitals," her sister Nicky said.

They continued sending letters, text messages and cards. ...

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-surrey-64431776
 
So, presumably the rent and bills were paid by direct debt and she had plenty in the bank?
If she was on benefits and the ones for disabled people where they don't make the claimant jump through hoops/sanction them for looking at someone funny, chances are rent and council tax kept being paid..?
 
Prompted by seeing this thread again, just did an online search for my second cousin whose body was found after several weeks on the kitchen floor of her house, as posted above but it never got reported in the local press - wonder why she wasn't newsworthy? Not even a one line report, anywhere. Just made me wonder how many of these cases are never really reported unless there's some interesting angle to the story? Or maybe it has to be months or years that pass, for it to even be a story but that makes it look like this may be not uncommon, on a smaller, less dramatic scale - people lying undiscovered for a little while (like my husband's colleague, I also mentioned upthread who was found after several days had passed but only because someone who worked him went looking, after he didn't turn up for work).

In the 2nd cousin's case, she was at first thought to have died of covid, as it was right at the start of the pandemic, so maybe they weren't reporting found deads as much? (She died of diabetes).
 
Outside at the edge of the Kralingse Bos, far from home and at a young age. There are really no words of consolation for the death of 32-year-old Pole Mateusz Trojan, who was found lifeless in a tent by emergency workers in mid-January. He died a natural death there.

Without family, he was escorted to his grave by the poets of the Rotterdam Lonely Funeral Foundation. "He must have imagined it very differently when he came here," said the poet.

"Pitch your tent in heaven, Mateusz," is how poet Bianca Boer begins her farewell poem. She is one of nine Rotterdam poets who accompanies lonely Rotterdammers to the grave when no one else in close proximity is found to be present.

1675366051981.png
The Polish Embassy in The Hague has made great efforts to trace Mateusz's family. His parents have not been found; only a sister has been traced in a small village in Poland. A village policeman informed her of the sad news. She had been out of contact with her brother for some time.

The sister cannot take care of the funeral; she does not have the money for that. For the same reason, she is not attending funeral either. Much more information does not come back from Poland through the village agent. A Polish volunteer from the Ontmoetingskerk in Rotterdam explains that the sister probably has a very hard time with that. "No money for a funeral and not being able to travel to Rotterdam is very painful and involves a lot of shame."

Little is known about Mateusz Trojan. He had been living for some time in a tent on the edge of the Kralingse Bos, between train tracks and a busy road. Enforcement officers and social workers who cycled by regularly for a chat spoke of a friendly outdoor sleeper with addiction problems. They tried to get him into the winter shelter, but despite the cold and rain, Mateusz refused the offer.

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
https://www.rijnmond.nl/nieuws/1610...07dyGsus1Vi3h5E3yoDnqkbK8kYaEbM1M7MG5q6Q3RBZ8
 

Illinois woman finds husband’s body in home eight months after he disappeared

Jennifer Maedge reported her husband, Richard Maedge, missing on the afternoon of April 27.

Police responded, searched the house, and launched an investigation into his whereabouts.

Richard Maege, it turned out, didn’t go anywhere, Fox 59 reported Monday.

On Dec. 11, Jennifer went to retrieve some Christmas decorations and was shocked to find her husband’s body in the closet where they were stored.

His death was ruled a suicide, according to a report from the county coroner released Thursday.

Richard’s body had decomposed to the point of mummification.

Jennifer, her neighbors, and even cops reported a foul odor coming from the home for months but believed it was sewage.

Police described the house as a “hoarder home,” which made it difficult to conduct a complete search for the missing man — and the odor, Jennifer said, was never overwhelming.

https://nypost.com/2023/03/07/illin...rd-maedges-body-in-home-after-he-disappeared/

maximus otter
 
This is a horrible case. A womans body is left undiscovered for 2 and a half years despite multiple phone calls for neighbours to the housing association, Peabody complaining of maggots, the smell of death and obvious signs that this women was no longer living in her flat. Instead of checking up on her, Peabody simply applied for benefits to cover her rent when it stopped being paid. When she didn't answer the door to get a gas safety check they arranged to have her gas cut off.

Inside the tidy one-bed flat, police found the remains of 58-year-old medical secretary Sheila Seleoane. She was little more than a skeleton, dressed in blue pyjama bottoms and a white top. The police did not consider the death suspicious.
Inside the fridge, a trifle dessert gave an indication of how long her body had lain there. It had gone out of date two-and-a-half years earlier.
Short presentational grey line

For Sheila's neighbours, it had been obvious for a long time that something was wrong.
Weeks after Sheila is thought to have died in August 2019, Chantel, who lived in the flat directly below, changed her light bulbs. As she removed the old bulb, a pile of maggots fell from the ceiling. In the weeks that followed, the problem only got worse.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-65055405

Residents in a south London block are considering legal action against the housing association Peabody after their neighbour lay dead for two and a half years before her body was found - despite their efforts to raise the alarm. How could someone remain undiscovered for so long?

I really hope they dò take legal action.
 
This is a horrible case. A womans body is left undiscovered for 2 and a half years despite multiple phone calls for neighbours to the housing association, Peabody complaining of maggots, the smell of death and obvious signs that this women was no longer living in her flat. Instead of checking up on her, Peabody simply applied for benefits to cover her rent when it stopped being paid. When she didn't answer the door to get a gas safety check they arranged to have her gas cut off...

To be honest, if I was really seriously concerned about the welfare of a neighbour, I'm not sure that approaching the landlord would be my first choice. Although the police's powers in relation to welfare checks are limited, I believe entry can be forced if it's considered to be an emergency. A landlord's right of entry without agreement is very limited. They too have some leeway in what might be considered emergency situations - but I suspect the notification to decision to action process is more legally straightforward for the police.

I mean, I wouldn't call the landlord first if my neighbour's house was on fire, or if I found them collapsed on the hallway - similarly, I'm not sure they'd be my first port of call in this situation.
 
To be honest, if I was really seriously concerned about the welfare of a neighbour, I'm not sure that approaching the landlord would be my first choice. Although the police's powers in relation to welfare checks are limited, I believe entry can be forced if it's considered to be an emergency. A landlord's right of entry without agreement is very limited. They too have some leeway in what might be considered emergency situations - but I suspect the notification to decision to action process is more legally straightforward for the police.
Maybe but the Housing Association should have called the police (they eventually did at one point). Simply cutting off her gas, applying to collect her rent via benefits and ignoring complaints of a dead person in the building is so far beyond unacceptable I can't even find a word for it. Besides, the residents may well have their own reasons for not wanting to call the police.
 
To be honest, if I was really seriously concerned about the welfare of a neighbour, I'm not sure that approaching the landlord would be my first choice. Although the police's powers in relation to welfare checks are limited, I believe entry can be forced if it's considered to be an emergency. A landlord's right of entry without agreement is very limited. They too have some leeway in what might be considered emergency situations - but I suspect the notification to decision to action process is more legally straightforward for the police.

I mean, I wouldn't call the landlord first if my neighbour's house was on fire, or if I found them collapsed on the hallway - similarly, I'm not sure they'd be my first port of call in this situation.
That was my first thought too. Calling the police would take priority over calling the landlord.
 
To be honest, if I was really seriously concerned about the welfare of a neighbour, I'm not sure that approaching the landlord would be my first choice. Although the police's powers in relation to welfare checks are limited, I believe entry can be forced if it's considered to be an emergency. A landlord's right of entry without agreement is very limited. They too have some leeway in what might be considered emergency situations - but I suspect the notification to decision to action process is more legally straightforward for the police.

I mean, I wouldn't call the landlord first if my neighbour's house was on fire, or if I found them collapsed on the hallway - similarly, I'm not sure they'd be my first port of call in this situation.

I believe that it's still s.17 Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 which covers this:

17 Entry for purpose of arrest etc.

(1) Subject to the following provisions of this section, and without prejudice to any other enactment, a constable may enter and search any premises for the purpose -

[Much snippage m.o.]

(e) - of saving life or limb or preventing serious damage to property.

maximus otter
 
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Here is a quote from one of the neighbours.

Audrey says the neighbours did everything they could to raise the alarm and describes being repeatedly reassured when she called Peabody's customer care line that someone would investigate.
"That's the one thing that I regret - that I believed Peabody. I regret not calling the police sooner, because I just trusted that they were going to do something."

Then the first time the police went they didn't try to gain entry and simply reported that Ms Seleoane was still alive.

A year after she died, Peabody did eventually visit the block in response to the neighbours' complaints. It asked the police to check on Sheila but when officers knocked on her door and no-one answered, it decided it didn't have enough justification to knock it down.
Crucially, a mistake by the police operator meant a false message was sent to Peabody saying Sheila had been seen alive and well. It would be another 16 months before Sheila's body would be discovered. The Metropolitan Police apologised and said if the operator responsible had not since retired, he would have been referred for an investigation.

But sure, blame the neighbours.:dunno:
 
To be honest, if I was really seriously concerned about the welfare of a neighbour, I'm not sure that approaching the landlord would be my first choice. Although the police's powers in relation to welfare checks are limited, I believe entry can be forced if it's considered to be an emergency. A landlord's right of entry without agreement is very limited. They too have some leeway in what might be considered emergency situations - but I suspect the notification to decision to action process is more legally straightforward for the police.

I mean, I wouldn't call the landlord first if my neighbour's house was on fire, or if I found them collapsed on the hallway - similarly, I'm not sure they'd be my first port of call in this situation.
Some years ago I was in a similar position, an elderly neighbour hadn't been seen for a couple of days and wasn't answering the door. The details are a bit fuzzy now, this would have been in the early 1990s, but I think I called the emergency services, certainly not the council or landlord. I can't remember the exact course of events but it ended with a GP asking me to help force entry - we broke a glass pane on the front door, and then reached in to open it from the inside, we heard a feeble voice from upstairs crying out "Go away! Leave me alone!". At this point, I left it to the GP but later heard that the lady no longer wanted to live, and was lying on the floor covered in her own filth, the GP called an ambulance and had her admitted to hospital but she soon died. :(
 
Some years ago I was in a similar position, an elderly neighbour hadn't been seen for a couple of days and wasn't answering the door. The details are a bit fuzzy now, this would have been in the early 1990s, but I think I called the emergency services, certainly not the council or landlord. I can't remember the exact course of events but it ended with a GP asking me to help force entry - we broke a glass pane on the front door, and then reached in to open it from the inside, we heard a feeble voice from upstairs crying out "Go away! Leave me alone!". At this point, I left it to the GP but later heard that the lady no longer wanted to live, and was lying on the floor covered in her own filth, the GP called an ambulance and had her admitted to hospital but she soon died. :(
You did the right thing.
Also, that sounds like a good and caring GP.
 
Quite recently I was told that the police forced entry to the house of an elderly man who I occasionally chat to in the local pub. He hadn’t been seen by the neighbours for a few days and hadn’t been seen in either of the villages two pubs that he regularly used. The police broke in and found him unconscious on his living room floor. The poor chap had had a stroke, and as I’m typing this I still don’t know how he is. His neighbours or the two publicans have no news.

I guess no news is good news though. I did phone the hospital, but they refused to give me any information about him.
 
The Seleoane case above is one of the most disgusting chain of events that could happen. I was listening to a report of the case this morning after the completion of the enquiry.
Not only were the police in error for failing to enter and another 'error' in saying she'd been seen, but the housing association were almost obscene in their responsibility.
Lack of rent payments? They contacted the benefit office and unilaterally appplied for (and got) the rent payments paid directly from her benefits. Asl ong as they got their money, they didn't care why she'd stopped paying. Neighbours complaining of smell and maggots? Oh, the usual tenant complaints - just say we're looking into it.

Earlier this year, during a freeze, we'd noticed that the elderly curmudgeon who lives above us in our two-flat house hadn't been seen in 12 hours. Don't get me wrong - he wasn't exactly freindly and we looked out for him in an offhand way.
We tried knocking loudly on his door and contacted the local police and actively requested a 'welfare check'. Two police turned up in half an hour, asked us about him (How active is he? Did we often talk to him etc.) tried knocking then - looking and nodding to each other - broke the door down.
He'd had a heart attack and was lying dead on his bedroom floor. Asking us to identify him 'for the record', it was all taken out of our hands.
Poor ol' misery, his closest family was a 60 y.o. cousin living about 70 miles away. And he was a 'classic' hoarder!
 
Lack of rent payments? They contacted the benefit office and unilaterally appplied for (and got) the rent payments paid directly from her benefits. Asl ong as they got their money, they didn't care why she'd stopped paying.
Is that even legal? To get that done, some jiggery-pokery must happen.
 
Yup. The theory is that the landlord can say they made repeated attempts to contact the tenant regarding the arrears with no success. They go to magistrates court (I think) for an order to recover the money; if the tenant is paid via Universal Credit then the court 'awards' the tenant to pay a regular sum directly from their benefits.
I don't know this for certain but I think that's how it could be done.
 
Yup. The theory is that the landlord can say they made repeated attempts to contact the tenant regarding the arrears with no success. They go to magistrates court (I think) for an order to recover the money; if the tenant is paid via Universal Credit then the court 'awards' the tenant to pay a regular sum directly from their benefits.
I don't know this for certain but I think that's how it could be done.

But - playing devil's advocate a little here - isn't that process better than just being handed a Section 8. Peabody has something over 60 000 properties, rent arrears must be a very common issue - surely automatically switching to direct benefit payments is a better deal than starting an eviction process. (And, to be honest, I have little doubt that if Peabody introduce welfare checks every time a tenant goes into arrears there'll be complaints about harassment and intimidation.)

When I lived in Bethnal Green back in the 90's Peabody were one of the few landlords still protecting the lower income families of central London - after the near complete destruction of the council house system, and Shirley Porter's disappearing of the Westminster City Council housing stock. Often, in high income areas, Peabody offered some of the only homes available to working Londoners on lower incomes - and I'm not sure its exaggerating to suggest that they may have helped preserve at least some of Central London's old working class communities. A friend of mine - who worked as a stagehand - shared a flat in Covent Garden with his disabled mother. It's still slightly surreal that with a combined income of not much over bugger all they lived in one of the most famous - and I'm sure, horrendously expensive - manors in London. I had another colleague who live somewhere close to Great Portland Street. Again, there's no way he could have done that if the rents were average for the location. (In fact, I recall that a major issue for Peabody was dealing with tenants who had fraudulently claimed to earn less than they in fact did, in order to qualify to get on their lists.)

I think back then that rents were protected and rentals could be inherited but, to be honest, I have no idea if they still work in the same way - it could all be very different now.

Clearly Peabody royally fucked this particular case - they've admitted as much; but, if they still work the way they used to, then I doubt they are anywhere near the worst landlord a Londoner could have.
 
Clearly Peabody royally fucked this particular case - they've admitted as much; but, if they still work the way they used to, then I doubt they are anywhere near the worst landlord a Londoner could have.
Oh, I agree. I dunno what they're like now but there was a Peabody block along from where I lived in Earls Court and a friend of mine's parents lived in a Peabody flat in Hammersmith. That was a couple of decades now, mind.
I think the issue is how Peabody is run now. I understand how they might not call for a welfare check but as far as I can tell, they didn't even try to contact the poor woman when she went into arrears.
The way I see it, social housing costs too much to local councils, 'affordable' housing is becoming unaffordable thanks to increased property values and while 'bricks 'n' mortar' was always considered a wise investment, increases in mortgages, property maintenance costs and letting agents wringing as much money as they can, means that private owners aren't getting the return they once did. The houses are going on the market (without sitting tenants, mind) but the only people who can afford them are other investors - usually big investment firms - who are 'land banking' or can afford to wait for a price drop.
All this means that existing housing associations are having to tighten their belts and run as more of a private venture, who can't afford to be as socially committed as they once were.
 
To be honest, if I was really seriously concerned about the welfare of a neighbour, I'm not sure that approaching the landlord would be my first choice. Although the police's powers in relation to welfare checks are limited, I believe entry can be forced if it's considered to be an emergency. A landlord's right of entry without agreement is very limited. They too have some leeway in what might be considered emergency situations - but I suspect the notification to decision to action process is more legally straightforward for the police.

I mean, I wouldn't call the landlord first if my neighbour's house was on fire, or if I found them collapsed on the hallway - similarly, I'm not sure they'd be my first port of call in this situation.
I agree, in my experience landlords are the last people to approach - their concern is for themselves, whether they would face legal problems, etc.
I would go right above their heads to the police, and let them decide what action to take. The situation would probably end up with them anyway.
 
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