It is the ghostly story that even 20 years later continues to send to spines: the case of Joyce Vincent.
This once lively young woman was left in her North London beds for three years before someone noticed.
Amazingly, the TV and heating were still on when on January 25, 2006, officials from the housing association – who discovered the small flat in Wood Green due to rent overdue overdue overdue – the grim discovery.
Lying on the couch was the skeleton of a 38-year-old woman who had been dead for almost three years.
In the corner of the room, the television set was still on, tailored to BBC1, the central heating was also switched on and a small pile of Christmas presents was spread on the floor.
A pile of washing was in the sink and a small mountain unopened pole and unwanted post was against the front door. All the food in the fridge was marked with the best-for-dates of 2003.
The body could only be identified by comparing dental records with an old holiday photo of her smiles. Her name was Joyce Carol Vincent.
Details of her sad life began to arise after the first publicity, but the story fascinated filmmaker Carol Morley, who made a disturbing docu drama about the life of Joyce, Dreams of A Life, with in the lead role in the lead role in 2011.
In turn, the film Paloma Faith would inspire to write her song 'Lost and Lonely' that could be seen on the album The Architect.
Joyce Carol Vincent remained in her beds in North Londen for three years before someone noticed it
Prior to the death of Joyce, she had cut almost all contact with those who knew her. She resigned from her work in 2001 and moved to a hiding place for victims of domestic violence.
She also started to reduce contact with friends and family.
Her death was estimated at some point in December 2003 and her cause of death was considered an asthma attack or complications of a recent stomach ulcer, although an investigation registered an open judgment.
Carol Morley remembered in The Guardian the moment she read about the business in a discarded newspaper at the Underground.
“The newspaper reported the Gothic circumstances of her death -” Woman death in flat for three years: Joyce's skeleton found on the couch with still on ” – but unveiled almost nothing about her life. There was not even a photo of her.
'The image of the television flashed over her resolutive body when I got out of the train to the busy platform.
'In a city such as London, the home base of 8 million people, how could someone's absence go unnoticed for so long? Who was Joyce Vincent? How was she? How could she have forgotten? '
In the case of Joyce, neighbors paid little attention to the signs of what had happened behind the closed front door of her flat.
An investigation showed that Joyce was placed in the winding of women as a victim of domestic violence.
Prior to the death of Joyce, she had cut almost all contact with those who knew her. She resigned from her work in 2001 and moved to a hiding place for victims of domestic violence
In the case of Joyce, neighbors paid little attention to the signs of what had happened behind the closed front door of her flat in Wood Green, London
The flat is part of a complex build above a shopping complex in Wood Green. Neighbors said that when they knocked on the door, no one answered, so they assumed it was not occupied.
Michael Dobbs, who moved in the summer of 2004, said: 'I always thought it was an empty house. It is a shock to think she had family and nobody came.
“It is also a puzzle how her electricity was not cut off because her TV had finished all the time.”
He told The Guardian that it was a noisy building that was visited by drug addicts, which could explain why nobody noticed the sound of the TV.
He said he had discovered someone dead, holding a bottle of drink, a few weeks earlier on the elevator.
He added: 'I have noticed a kind of rotten scent, but the bins below are strong and the stairwells smell with junkies.
“I got a few bugs in my house, so I had to keep the windows closed.”
After Carol Morley inquired about Joyce, she was able to trace some of her family members and to build a much clearer image of the woman who only died.
She followed Martin Lister, an old friend, who met when they worked together in the 1980s.
He said to Morley: “You look back and think, I wish I had asked more, wish I had understood more.”
The couple enjoyed racing on Goodwood, tennis in Wimbledon, classical music and opera, as well as eating out in restaurants.
A work friend then said to Morley: 'It seems that we are talking about two different people. I just can't connect the Joyce who died with the Joyce we knew. '
He remembered: 'She always wanted to improve her mind. In fact, she told me that she had had elocation lessons and she sounded-I would not say Posh, but you would not know that she came from London, she just sounded very good, almost BBC really. '
Other former colleagues who had worked with Joyce at Blue-Chip Accountancy Firm Ernst & Young in their Treasury Department also spoke with Morley.
During that time she was engaged for two years, but the fiancé remained anonymous.
In 2001, Joyce took her job and told friends that she was going to travel with 20 people, but told others that she had been headhunted.
A work friend then said to Morley: 'It seems that we are talking about two different people. I just can't connect the Joyce who died with the Joyce we knew. '
Another former colleague, Kim nodded in accordance: “I mean, she gave this impression to be a happy, bustling person, but it makes you wonder what was really going on.”
Other friends told Morley that Joyce had a beautiful singing voice and got involved on the edge of the music industry, even dressed once as a maid and tea served to Punkster captain wisely.
It turned out that on an occasion she had even eaten with Stevie Wonder, thanks to her girlfriend, the American disco singer Judy Cheeks.
Michael Dobbs, who moved in the summer of 2004, said: 'I always thought it was an empty house. It is a shock to think she had family and nobody came. “It is also a puzzle how her electricity was not cut off because her TV had finished all the time.”
Cheeks said to Morley on the phone: 'I had no idea where she was going. It seems that nobody did that. I often thought of her and always assumed that she had finally found her ideal husband, had a few children and was happy. '
Another boyfriend that was traced by Morley told her that Joyce had gone for a member of parliament and a baronet.
Then she discovered that Joyce knew the American soul singer Betty Wright. Wright's former tour manager and another former friend of Joyce's, Alistair Abrahams, told Morley how they lived together in London for two years in the 90s and home guests were Jimmy Cliff, Gil Scott-Heron and Isaac Hayes.
But in fact the nightmare phenomenon is so brutal summarized by Bridget Jones: 'Three weeks later found half eaten by Alsatians' is not that rare.
In Great Britain, more than 9,000 people were found alone more than a week after their death in 2023. The Japanese even have a word for 'lonely deaths': Kodokushi, and more than 60,000 of such cases are registered annually.
