Body Found at Home 5 Years After Death

(MYFOX NATIONAL) - Scottish police say the remains of an 89-year-old woman were discovered at her apartment five years after she died.

The Daily Mail reports that Isabella Purves' body was discovered only when her downstairs neighbors complained of water dripping through their ceiling.

Police arrived at Purves' apartment and found piles of mail along with the woman's badly decomposed body.

"How did no one notice the smell, or wonder where she was?" asked Giovanni Cilia, who owns a florist downstairs from where Purves lived.

"It's very saddening and a real shock," added neighbor Lucy Balloch. "There are a lot of people moving in and out all the time in here and it's not easy to get to know the neighbors that well. That's maybe why nobody suspected anyone was in there."

Police say that Purves' pension was paid directly to her bank account and her bills were paid by debit, which may partially explain why no one reported her missing.

Stateside in San Antonio, Texas, last month the body of a woman who died in 2004 was found at a funeral home that had been shut down the week before.