Now this didn't actually happen to me, but my Uncle. I've been a bit of a lurker here, but heard this great story at the weekend, and thought you might be interested to hear it. So here it is posted with my Uncle's permission (albeit with names removed).
My Uncle was a Special Constable (volunteer policeman) for most of the '90s, and this happened in 1995. Him and his partner received a call to a quiet, middle class housing scheme of modern (1970s built) houses. It was early summer and late in the afternoon so still daylight. The report was that a woman had been found dead in her home; it's common in Scotland that the police are called to all "unexplained" deaths and will make a report on the death. Only a tiny fraction of these deaths become classified as "suspicious" and merit any further police investigation.
On arriving at the house they met the paramedics who were just getting ready to leave. The paramedics told my uncle and his partner that the death was of a 62 year old woman, who was found dead in the upstairs bedroom. The paramedics thought that it had been some form of embolism or haemorrhage but that the duty doctor had been called to formally confirm death. The paramedics told my Uncle and his partner that the family were downstairs in the lounge, and now that my Uncle and his partner had arrived they would go.
My Uncle and his partner then went into the house, which my uncle described as a normal semi detached suburban home. They went and spoke to the family and established that the woman lived alone (her two sons were grown up but lived nearby) and had been due to return from holiday late the previous night. Both her sons and her neice (who my Uncle thought looked about 17/18) had called the woman a number of times during the day, and having had no answer had gone round that afternoon and let themselves in. They had discovered the woman dead and phoned the ambulance.
My Uncle's partner stayed downstairs with the family, while my Uncle went upstairs to investigate the scene further. There were three bedrooms upstairs, the first had the door open and contained nothing of much interest. My Uncle noted that the house was very clean and well maintained; the woman was obviously houseproud. He then opened the door to the smallest bedroom, inside were two packed suitcases. He assumed that the woman arrived home late the previous night and left the suitcases in the spare bedroom intending to unpack them the next day.
Leaving the spare room he was startled to see a woman standing by the (closed) master bedroom door on the other side of the landing looking at him. He described the woman as older, grey haired, tall and well dressed in a grey wool jacket and skirt. She was looking at him with an expression of confusion on her face. My Uncle didn't think anyone else was up the stairs and was initially startled but naturally assumed this was a relative. He said something along the lines of "Sorry to have disturbed you, I didn't realise there was anyone else up here". The woman continued to look at him with a confused expression, but he assumed that as a relative she would naturally be confused by a sudden death. At that point the doorbell wrang and assuming (correctly) it was the duty doctor he said "I'll have to go get that", the woman continued to look at him but slowly nodded.
My Uncle answered the door to the duty doctor (a young man he has met before), after bringing him into the lounge for introductions he took him upstairs to the master bedroom while the partner continued to wait with the family downstairs. As my Uncle went up the stairs with the doctor he noted that the landing was now empty and assumed that the woman must have gone downstairs. Upon entering the master bedroom, however, he was shocked to see that the dead woman in the bed was the same woman he had just seen on the landing! Fortunately he was standing behind the doctor who didn't see the look of shock on his face.
While the doctor was doing the examination he managed to compose himself and told himself that they couldn't possibly be the same woman and that he must have seen a sister or a cousin who bore a strong resemblance.
The doctor officially pronounced death, and stated that it did indeed seem to be a haemorrhage or embolism, but this would be cofirmed by an autopsy. They then both went downstairs and the doctor discussed the arrangements for the body being collected before leaving.
My Uncle didn't see anyone in the lounge who looked like the woman he saw on the landing and asked the family where the older woman that was upstairs was. The family looked confused and said that there was no older woman there and that none of the friends or family had been upstairs since the police arrived. Very shocked, but with nothing else to do, my Uncle then left with his partner.
In the car my Uncle's partner asked why he had been asking about an older woman -reluctantly my Uncle explained. His partner at this time was an older, very serious, career officer and he expected to be the butt of every joke in the station for weeks to come. The partner though just slowly nodded his head and said "Aye, you see some weird sh*t in this job". He never mentioned it again to my Uncle or (to the best of his knowledge) anybody else.
After this story I asked my Uncle what had happened afterwards. He said that the autopsy has confirmed the woman died of natural causes and that their police report simply stated that there appeared to be no signs of any disturbance, and no evidence that anyone else had been present at the time of death.
I've tried to summarise my Uncle's story here. I did ask him more about his sighting of the woman and he said that she just seemed like a "normal" person - she wasn't transparent or blurry or anything and he felt no cold spots or feeling of unease.
