A WOMAN has been found “mummified and skeletal” after lying dead in a flat for fourteen years.
The police are now searching for the woman’s relatives to identify her and establish how she may have died.
SolarpixThe mummified body of a woman has been found at a flat in Malaga[/caption]
SolarpixThe apartment block where the body was discovered by squatters[/caption]
The grim discovery was made by a squatter who broke into the flat in Malaga with his 11-year-old daughter.
After finding the body, the pair alerted the neighbours.
The police suspect the Spanish woman was around 85 years old when she died.
Although she has not been fully identified it is thought she passed away shortly after losing her husband.
Initial tests by forensic experts suggest the woman died around 14 years ago.
Her body was in the final stage of decomposition, known as skeletonization.
Skeletonization occurs when a corpse’s soft tissues have decayed or dried to the point that the skeleton is exposed.
The apartment block where her body was found has a high rotation of residents.
And it is unlikely that residents would have smelled the rotting corpse due to the windows being open.
Two Brit pensioners were found dead in February after their bodies reportedly lay undiscovered for days.
The bodies of the man and woman were found at a home near the small town of San Fulgencio – a 45-minute drive south of Alicante.
Staff at a local council social services department raised the alarm after the couple failed to answer any calls and part of a body was spotted on the floor inside the property.
It is thought that both the man and woman suffered from chronic illnesses and had been categorised by social services as “vulnerable.”