SydLexia.com - The Forums :: View topic - Missing Person discovered in her own armchair after 42 years

Posted: Jun 24 2010 03:12 pm

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/uk-world-news/2008/05/16/woman-sat-dead-in-front-of-tv-for-42-years-86908-20419070/

I'm baffled as to why they never bothered to search her flat.

Title: Alexz Aficionado Joined: May 21 2008 Posts: 2889

How could no one come by in so long? I bet that place ends up haunted.

Posted: Jun 24 2010 05:40 pm

???

How did they not check? I don't imagine that they've got the greatest cops over there (not that we necessarily do; I live, sadly, in Sheriff Joe country), but seriously, WTF? I thought that was part of basic investigative skills, under the first chapter in the book, entitled Check their Fucking House!

Posted: Jun 24 2010 05:50 pm

Maybe she left some old cereal behind that Syd could eat.

Posted: Jun 24 2010 06:54 pm

It's always in the place you never think to look.

Posted: Jun 24 2010 07:04 pm

WORST. LANDLORD. EVER.

Posted: Jun 24 2010 09:22 pm

It would have been better if she was still alive.

Posted: Jun 24 2010 10:23 pm

username wrote:

WORST. LANDLORD. EVER.

Yeah, who was paying her rent all this time? And did they ever release what she died of?

Posted: Jun 26 2010 02:35 pm

I'm totally moving myself and the Mrs. to Zagreb, Croatia right now. Screw it. It must be nice to find an apartment that people pretty much forget about for fourty years. I would actually wait until everyone else was asleep before going out.

This is a huge WTF story. Seriously, nobody EVER checked in there? Something's wrong with that.

Joined: Aug 04 2009 Posts: 2515

sidewaydriver wrote:

Maybe she left some old cereal behind that Syd could eat.

I'm going to hell for laughing at that.

Joined: Sep 17 2007 Location: The Opium Trail Posts: 3475

Syd Lexia wrote:

It would have been better if she was still alive.

Less depressing.

Posted: Jun 26 2010 08:36 pm

I'm going to print this off to my grandma the next time she says "no one ever comes to visit me".

Posted: Jun 26 2010 08:40 pm

The-Excel wrote:

username wrote:

WORST. LANDLORD. EVER.

Yeah, who was paying her rent all this time? And did they ever release what she died of?

More like best landlord ever. Apparently collecting money wasn't a priority!

Posted: Jun 26 2010 08:42 pm

I'm assuming the apartment was vacant at the time her body was decomposing or it smelled like shit already. And what landlord would let a room stay occupied for 42 years without payment. I have heard stories of air conditioning slowing decomposition, but I doubt that was the case 42 years ago. And apartments are supposed to make money. Why would it go unchecked for that long? This sounds phony, and I doubt anybody ever questioned it to the point of physically investigating it.

Posted: Jun 26 2010 08:45 pm

Maybe she did auto payments. I've heard similar stories in Japan where an elderly person was dead for years in their apartments and were only discovered after their bank account ran dry.

Posted: Jun 26 2010 09:58 pm

Would they have had such a program in 1966?

Posted: Jun 26 2010 10:00 pm

did they even have money in croatia in 66?

Posted: Jun 26 2010 10:15 pm

If not, it would explain why they took their time looking for her.

Posted: Jun 26 2010 10:31 pm

Let's step back and look at the historical facts.

At that point in history, Croatia was part of the former Yugoslavia. Yugoslavia was a communist country, so it's highly probable that the entire block of flats was owned by the government. Said government also couldn't be bothered to go looking for an old woman who was reported missing, if indeed her disappearance was reported at all.

What's truly sad here is that she had no family that bothered to look for her, or even noticed she was gone.

Posted: Jun 26 2010 10:35 pm

That's the first time I heard the word "Yugoslavia" in years. Must have been frightening for the other tenants after the first ten years, knowing that similar efforts to find them if they ever go missing wouldn't turn out much better.

Posted: Jun 27 2010 03:16 am

I wonder what was on the TV when they busted in.

Posted: Jun 27 2010 02:58 pm

I wonder if the picture was still clear. I imagine that 42 years of continuous use have to do something to the tubes.

Joined: Apr 09 2009 Location: Jax, Florida Posts: 45

The way I read it, someone bothered enough to file a missing persons report, but didn't bother to look. Great job!

Joined: Oct 01 2009 Posts: 5316

Old story. I also heard a version where she was found in her bed.

Honestly, I think it's an urban legend that somehow got passed off as being real, since;

1. No source as to how she died

2. Dates are mixed up constantly on the stories I've read

3. Windows were apparently open

4. Why the landlord didn't check the place out, knowing that the TV was running.

5. She was seen earlier that day talking to 2 men by a neighbor.

Posted: Jul 01 2010 07:43 pm

Doddsino wrote:

Old story. I also heard a version where she was found in her bed.

Honestly, I think it's an urban legend that somehow got passed off as being real, since;

1. No source as to how she died

2. Dates are mixed up constantly on the stories I've read

3. Windows were apparently open

4. Why the landlord didn't check the place out, knowing that the TV was running.

5. She was seen earlier that day talking to 2 men by a neighbor.

Yeah, and at the very least, you would think the power would be shut off, preventing the TV from operating... not to mention there's no way in hell a tv would last 42 years after bing on constantly.