Annie Walton Doyle
The body of a woman in an advanced ‘mummified state’ was discovered inside her home, where she had been dead for nearly three years.
The shocking revelation was made when authorities, acting on concerned reports from neighbors, entered the home to conduct a welfare check.
What they found inside has raised questions about how such a tragedy could go unnoticed for so long in an age of constant communication and community.
The woman who passed away in her apartment left heartbreaking diary entries shortly before her death.
Laura Winham, whose body was found ‘mummified and almost skeletal’ in her Surrey, England home on May 24, 2021, had written about her deteriorating condition, according to The Guardian.
Her 38-year-old brother requested police intervention after growing worried about her well-being. Authorities believe she died in November 2017.
A coroner is now investigating why her body remained undiscovered for such a long time.
Laura, who reportedly suffered from schizophrenia, was born severely deaf and relied on hearing aids. She also had surgery at 18 to repair a hole in her heart.
In the days leading up to her death, Laura wrote about her dire circumstances in her diary, which coroner Karen Henderson shared during the inquest.
An entry from September 15, 2017, reads: “Wish I’d bought rice. Dreaming of [food]. Anyway, I’m starving.”
On 28 September 2017, she wrote: “My mobile gave up on 7 September. I got a Tesco run in before it died. I have slept weeks away… I haven’t stocked any food for months because I don’t know what’s happening.”
Another entry indicated she had ‘about £5 left’ and was surviving on potatoes and cheese.
By October 2017, she wrote: “It has been a whole month since my last food shop. I cannot believe I have survived this long.”
A pathologist testified at Surrey Coroner’s Court that Laura’s cause of death could not be determined, nor the exact time she passed away, according to The Independent.
Laura’s family revealed they had distanced themselves from her after years of struggling with her mental health, as she believed they would harm her.
Her sister, Nicola, shared that the last time she saw Laura was in 2009, and that she stopped contacting her in 2014 after receiving a message from Laura on Facebook that read: “It is best to have minimum/no contact. And communications with the family.”
Nicola added, “It is totally out of my hands. There is nothing I can do. Everything I say will get repeated and relayed back. Be patient.”
The family described the devastating moment they discovered Laura’s body in 2021.
“They were shouting her name and looking through the letterbox,” Nicola told the inquest, according to the Daily Mail. “My brother saw what he thought was a seriously decomposed body.”
“They called the police, who forced entry, and found a mummified, almost skeletal body. The shock of finding her like this can never be forgotten,” she said.
In court, it was revealed that the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) sent Laura letters in February 2016 regarding a new personal independence payment (PIP) to replace her disability living allowance (DLA).
She responded by expressing concerns: “I have only lived on my savings and DLA benefit.” However, her situation was not communicated to the DWP.
Nicola has spoken fondly of her sister, remembering her as ‘extremely caring and nurturing’ and noted that Laura had ‘demonstrated skills to be a very talented painter.’
I find this very sad in 21st Century Britain. https://t.co/8IbtL2tol6
Laura Winham, 38, lay dead in her flat in Woking for more than three years pic.twitter.com/HnTBS8HIIQ— TheScentofWhitehorse (@30YearsOfHurt) January 27, 2023
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