Woman found dead after not being seen for three years; sad and personal items found in her apartment

Laura Winham was a woman whose body was tragically found in her apartment in May 2021, three years after she passed away. Her family hadn’t seen or heard from her for a long time, and they grew concerned about her health and safety. When her brother went to check on her, he made the heartbreaking discovery of her remains in her flat in Woking, Surrey.

Laura was 41 years old and had been struggling with mental health problems, specifically schizophrenia. She was also deaf and lived alone, which made it hard for her to communicate with others. In the years before her death, Laura had become very isolated.

She had chosen to stay away from her family, believing that contact with them made her mental health worse. Her last contact with them was through social media in 2014, and they hadn’t seen her in person since 2009.

Despite her isolation, Laura had written in a diary about her struggles with food and money. In one of her last entries, she mentioned that she was “starving” and regretted not buying rice during her last grocery shopping trip. She wrote that it had been a month since her last food shop and that she couldn’t believe she had survived that long without proper food.

When the police entered her apartment, they found only a few items of food left in her kitchen, such as margarine, tomato sauce, and some herbs and spices.

They also found some loose coins around the flat, showing that Laura had very little money. A pathologist later examined her body, but because it had been so long since her death, they couldn’t determine exactly how she died.

A calendar in Laura’s home had the dates marked off until November 1, 2017, which suggests that she passed away around that time.

Laura’s family had tried to reach out to her, but she had pushed them away due to her mental health issues. Her sister, Nicola, explained in court that they knew Laura struggled with seeing them because it made her condition worse, but they didn’t know how bad things had become.

When her brother and mother went to check on her after years of no contact, they knocked on her door and called her name, but there was no answer. Her brother looked through the letterbox and saw what he thought was a body in a very advanced state of decomposition. They immediately called the police, who forced their way into the apartment and found Laura’s body. The family was deeply shocked and heartbroken by what they saw.

The court heard that Laura had been living in extreme poverty and hunger before her death. She wrote in her diary about being low on money and food, mentioning that her mobile phone had stopped working, and she hadn’t stocked up on food for months. She was afraid to leave her home, which made it even harder for her to get help or reach out to anyone.