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Woman's mummified body went unnoticed in flat for three years with TV still on when found

Home> News> UK News

Published 19:42 10 Nov 2023 GMT

Woman's mummified body went unnoticed in flat for three years with TV still on when found

Joyce Carol Vincent lay dead and undiscovered until bailiffs forced entry into her flat.

Olivia Burke

Olivia Burke

A woman's mummified body lay undiscovered at her north London home for more than two years after she died.

The TV in Joyce Carol Vincent's flat was still on when she was finally found after bailiffs forced entry to repossess the property due to rent arrears.

The 38-year-old's skeletal remains were so badly decomposed that she was only identified after comparing dental records.

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The tragic circumstances surrounding her death stunned the country as people couldn't understand how she'd managed to go unnoticed for so long.

Joyce was born and raised in London after her parents emigrated from Grenada, but her mother sadly died when she was just 11-years-old.

Her four older sisters then took on the responsibility of her upbringing.

Friends described her as someone who often 'walked out of jobs if she clashed with a colleague and moved from one flat to the next all over London', according to The Herald.

Joyce then finally joined accounting firm Ernst & Young - but after four years working in the treasury department, she suddenly resigned in March 2001.

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The former secretary went on to spend time in a domestic abuse shelter in Haringey.

During this period, she became estranged from her family - with her sisters even hiring a private detective to try and find out what had happened to Joyce.

Joyce tragically went undiscovered for more than two years.
FindAGrave.com

A source involved in the investigation said she had a 'really nice family' and that she was in an abusive relationship at the time, the Herald Scotland reported.

Joyce moved into a bedsit flat above Wood Green Shopping City in February 2003, which was owned by Metropolitan Housing Trust and was used to house victims of abuse.

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In November of that year, she was hospitalised for two days after vomiting blood, which was due to a peptic ulcer, according to a police inquest.

She then died sometime in December - but would not be found for nearly three years.

Vincent was tragically lying on her back next to a shopping bag and surrounded by Christmas presents that she had wrapped but never delivered.

The 38-year-old's mummified corpse was found in January 2006.
FindAGrave.com

Her neighbours had assumed the flat was unoccupied and put the smell of her decomposing body down to the nearby bins.

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The constant hum of Joyce's television didn't alert anyone either, as her flat was in a 'noisy' building, a resident told the BBC at the time.

Half of her rent was also automatically being paid by benefits agencies, so there was 'no reason to suspect anything unusual had happened', a Metropolitian Housing Trust spokesperson said at the time.

But after her share went unpaid for over two years, housing officials decided to repossess the home.

Bailiffs forced entry on 25 January 2006, and stumbled upon the gruesome scene.

Due to the amount of time that had passed, it meant that it was impossible to determine her official cause of death.

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Police ruled out any foul play and her death was ruled to be by natural causes.

Her devastating story was told in the 2011 film Dreams of a Life.

Featured Image Credit: Janessa Leonski/Find A Grave.Com

Topics: UK News, News, London

Olivia Burke
Olivia Burke

Olivia is a journalist at LADbible Group with more than five years of experience and has worked for a number of top publishers, including News UK. She also enjoys writing food reviews (as well as the eating part). She is a stereotypical reality TV addict, but still finds time for a serious documentary.

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@livburke_

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