The body of a 76-year-old man has been located in Benajarafe, Vélez-Málaga.

His neighbours say they had not seen the old man, originally from the Netherlands, in the neighbourhood where he lived alone, “for a long time.”

The said neighbours decided to call the emergency services last Saturday after conferring and agreeing that none of them had seen him for quite some while.

Firefighters and local police arrived and the fire service effected an entry to the property where the man’s body was discovered. He had clearly been deceased for some considerable time.

The police are working on the hypothesis that this was a natural death based on the observation that the body showed no signs of violence.

This is not the only case of its kind in the Málaga province this year. At the end of May, a domestic worker discovered the skeletal remains of a Japanese man in his house in Fuengirola.

It is believed he had been dead for around a year, with no reports of him being missing and with all his bills being paid by direct debit, his death went unnoticed.

The woman who discovered his remains had worked in the house previously and she was worried about the lack of news from the householder, but thinking he had returned to his home country. However, as she had a set of keys from her cleaning days, she decided to check. She let herself in and found his remains.

Everything indicated that the skeleton, laying beside an armchair, was that of the 86-year-old Japanese resident. He had a brother and a niece living in Japan, but neither had noticed his absence.

After the usual investigation of the remains, the belief was that he had died of natural causes.

Editorial comment:Such is the life (and death) of some elderly expats. With all the household bills being regularly paid by direct debit and no family to phone and enquire as to their welfare, sadly, they can often pass without the anyone even noticing.

(News/Noticias: Benajarafe, Vélez-Málaga, Axarquia, Costa del Sol, Málaga, Andalucia)