Joyce Vincent’s death went unnoticed for over three years, with her body remaining undiscovered in her apartment. The cause of her death is believed to be an asthma attack or complications from a recent peptic ulcer.
Strangely, no one had tried to contact her in the years leading up to her death. According to those who knew her, she had cut off nearly all contact with her friends and family.
No one tried to contact Joyce Vincent
Joyce was described by her friends as someone who would flee at the first sign of trouble, often leaving jobs or moving from one flat to the next all over London. She didn’t answer calls from her sister and didn’t appear to have a close circle of friends, instead relying on the company of relative strangers such as new boyfriends, colleagues, or flatmates.
Joyce Vincent quit her job and moved to a shelter house
However, this was not always the case. At 25, Joyce had many friends and was even recorded in the audience at the “Wembley Concert: Nelson Mandela, International Tribute for a Free South Africa” (National BFI Archive). She reportedly met Nelson Mandela at the concert and shook his hand.
In 1985, Joyce began working as a secretary at OCL in London. She later worked at Ernst & Young in the Treasury Department for four years before resigning in March 2001 for unknown reasons. After resigning from her job, she began to distance herself from her family, shortly after spending some time in a domestic abuse shelter and working as a cleaner in a budget hotel. She was in a relationship and had a history of domestic violence.
Neighbors assumed the flat was empty
Joyce lived in a Housing Trust flat above the shopping district in Wood Green, North London. Her neighbors were unaware that the flat was occupied, and the smell of her decomposing body had been attributed to nearby waste bins for over two years. The window in her flat did not allow direct access to the inside. Her TV was a constant noise, which is why no one questioned the constant noise, and it remained turned on until her body was discovered.
Rent payments: Benefit agencies paid half of her rent automatically to the Metropolitan Housing Trust, leading officials to believe she was still alive. The housing officials decided to repossess the property after the total due amounted to £2,400. Her body was discovered on January 25, 2006, when bailiffs forced their way into the flat.
According to the Housing Trust, arrears were not realised until much later because housing benefits covered the cost of rent for some time after Vincent’s death. The trust also stated that no neighbors or visitors expressed any concerns during the three years between her death and the discovery of her body.
Before her death, in November 2003, she was admitted to North Middlesex Hospital for two days after vomiting blood due to a peptic ulcer.
Death of Joyce Vincent
The cause of her death is unknown, but it is speculated that she had asthma and a peptic ulcer at the time of her death. A pathologist described her remains as “mostly skeletal,” and she was lying on her back next to a shopping bag, surrounded by Christmas presents she had wrapped but never delivered.
The gifts were not given to anyone, and the refrigerator in her bedsit apartment contained food with an expiry date of 2003. Joyce’s remains were too decomposed for a full post-mortem, and she was identified using her dental records. Police ruled her death as natural causes, as there was no evidence of foul play. The front door was double-locked, and no signs of a break-in were found. She was reported to have a boyfriend at the time.
Post-mortem couldn’t be conducted
Joyce Vincent’s death went unnoticed for over three years, with her body remaining undiscovered in her apartment. Her remains were too decomposed for a full post-mortem examination, so she was identified using her dental records. The cause of her death was ruled as natural causes by the police, as there was no evidence of foul play. The front door was double locked and there were no signs of a break-in.
Joyce was reported to have had a boyfriend at the time of her death, but the police were unable to locate him. Her neighbors were unaware that anyone lived in the flat, and the smell of her decomposing body had been attributed to nearby waste bins for over two years.
Fact Check: A story circulating on the internet tells of a woman who was found dead in her London flat, having been deceased for three years. The woman in question is indeed real and her name was Joyce Vincent.
It is a tragic and mysterious case, as Joyce had cut off almost all contact with her friends and family in the years leading up to her death. Despite her isolation, it is important to remember that she was a person with a life and a story, and her passing should be acknowledged with dignity and respect. It’s important to verify the information before sharing and spreading it.
Dream of a Life – In 2011, a film about Vincent Joyce was released. Carol Morley tracked down and interviewed people who knew Vincent. They described her as a lovely, intelligent, and socially active lady.
Now you’ve read about the case of Joyce Vincent, you might also like to read about Mary Resser; The Bizarre Death Of Mary Reeser; The Curious Case of Human Combustion
