Skeletal woman, 42, found after 27 years 'locked in room by parents'

Police have found a 42-year-old woman who has been missing for 27 years locked away in her parents' home.

Known only as 'Mirella', the woman was just 15 when she disappeared in 1998 in Swietochlowice, Poland, with her parents allegedly telling neighbours that she'd gone missing.

However, almost three decades later, she was finally set free earlier this year after the police were called to her family home following reports of a disturbance.

Polish news site Fakt reports that the woman had spent the majority of her life kept in one room having no contact with the outside world, and said that when police found her in July, she was 'emaciated, with leg wounds reaching to the bone'.

The property's landlady, 82, denied there being any problem ,but police called an ambulance after noticing Mirella's leg wounds. Despite the 42-year-old saying 'everything was fine', they still took her to hospital.

Doctors say the 42-year-old could have been days away from death due to an infection (Pomagan.pl)

It was fortunate they did, as she had been 'days away from death' by an infection and spent the next two months in hospital.

One of the 42-year-old's neighbours, Luiza, said that Mirella 'looked like an old lady' when she was brought out of the home and remembered her being a 'healthy teenager' when they played together as children before she disappeared.

The neighbour and her friends started visiting the woman in hospital and have started a fundraiser to help the woman out, which can be donated to here.

The 42-year-old woman faces a lengthy recovery and rehabilitation process, as her last contact with the outside world came when she was 15, and now, almost three decades have passed.

Aleksandra Salbert, another of the fundraisers organisers, said that Mirella was having to start her life over without being registered in any systems.

The 42-year-old's neighbours have started a fundraiser for her as she's having to start her life over from scratch (Pomagan.pl)

"We went to the hospital almost every day. Mirella is a very nice girl, she has so many dreams. She's never been to a doctor, she didn't have ID, she wasn't insured, that's not normal," the fundraiser organiser explained.

"She has no insurance, isn't even registered as unemployed, has no money, and doesn't exist in the eyes of the system.

"We bought her ointments, a jacket, and shoes, because she had nothing. We want to help her long-term, also providing legal assistance."

There have been other cases of people being kept in houses by their parents for a lengthy period of time, as earlier this year a teenager was set free from a 'house of horrors' claiming that her mother and stepfather kept her locked in there for several years.

Prosecutors claim the couple forced the teenage girl to live in a padlocked bathroom, while their attorneys have pleaded not guilty to the charges against them.