Joyce Vincent — the woman who died alone in her apartment and wasn't discovered until two years later.

Joyce Vincent’s case is one of the saddest examples of someone becoming socially isolated without others realizing just how alone she had become. Joyce was a British woman living in a small flat in Wood Green, North London. She was born in 1965 and had worked in London, had friends, relationships, and a fairly active social life. But in the years leading up to her death, she gradually withdrew from people. She had also left her job and spent time in accommodation for victims of domestic abuse. What happened to her? She died sometime around December 2003, when she was only about 38. The exact cause of death was never determined because her body had decomposed too extensively. Police found no evidence of foul play and considered natural causes possible, including an asthma attack or complications from a peptic ulcer. The really disturbing part is that her body remained inside her flat for more than two years. When she was eventually discovered on 25 January 2006, she was lying in the living room. There were Christmas presents around her, suggesting she had been preparing gifts shortly before her death. Her television and heating were still running. But how could nobody notice? It wasn't simply that "nobody cared." Several unfortunate circumstances came together: She had become increasingly isolated. She had lost contact with much of her family and friends, and people apparently assumed she had simply moved on or was living somewhere else. Her family actually tried to find her. Her sisters hired a private investigator and contacted the Salvation Army. They eventually came to believe that Joyce had intentionally cut contact with them. Her neighbours didn't realize the flat was occupied. The building was noisy, and neighbours reportedly assumed the flat was empty. The smell from decomposition was apparently mistaken for rubbish from nearby bins. The TV being on didn't raise suspicion. In a noisy building, constant television noise apparently didn't seem unusual. Her rent situation delayed the discovery. Housing benefits were covering part of her rent, so the housing authority didn't immediately realize something was wrong. Eventually, significant arrears accumulated, and officials went to repossess the flat. That's when they found her body. And there's an especially heartbreaking detail: people who had known Joyce were eventually found by filmmaker Carol Morley while she was researching the case. Some of them hadn't even realized that Joyce was the woman who had died until Morley contacted them. That's why the case is so haunting. Joyce wasn't literally a complete recluse with nobody who knew her. She had friends, former partners, relatives, and acquaintances. But everyone seemed to assume that someone else was still in contact with her. Her story became the subject of the documentary Dreams of a Life, which explores who Joyce was and how someone who had once been socially connected could disappear from everyone's lives so completely.