The body of 68-year-old Trinidad Figueros was found in her flat three years after her death. This occurred in Bilbao in the north of Spain.

According to the coroner, she had died of natural causes and had been found face up on her bed. Trinidad lived alone, but had two children, Alfonso and Lourdes, who obviously didn’t visit ‘Mum’ much.

So how is it that nobody has missed Trinidad? One of her neighbours explained that they thought that she had moved to an old-person’s home and that the dwelling was empty.

Amazingly, eleven months before, people had entered the building; a neighbour, a lawyer and a court official and and a locksmith but nobody had noticed a corpse on the bed.

At least one of her offspring lives in the same city and furthermore, nobody had reported her missing; not her family, nor her neighbours.

It appears that the woman had had mental issues in recent years, had tried to kill herself and had been hospitalized, which is when most people ‘lost track of her.’

Back in February 2013 the bar underneath her flat had complained that there was a leak coming from the flat above and had consequently asked the communidad del bloque to look into it. The administrators had tried to locate the woman and her offspring in order to gain access, but to no avail. So they finally obtained a court order allowing them to gain access.

A neighbour, the locksmith and a court official entered, found the leak in the kitchen and also checked the bathroom… but they didn’t check the bedroom. In fact, so sure were they that nobody lived there that they changed the lock and left a note on the door requesting Trinidad or her offspring to contact them because she was in arrears with the community fees.

The smell? It is an old building with smelly plumbing anyway and besides, Trinidad had thoughtfully left the kitchen window open, which had ventilated the flat.

Fortunately, she had no cats…

(News: Bilbao, Spain)