It's not the undiscovered part that scares me, but the loneliness of each of these scenes. In every case, people just seem to lose touch with those they care about – and who care about them. I can honestly say it would be heartbreaking to feel that if I died, no one would find me. For years.
Instead of feeling brought down by these stories, I hope they bring you up. I hope they inspire you to reach out to those you care about, but also to those who maybe you've forgotten over the years. Whether they've become loners or not, you could be changing someone's life.
1. A woman and her daughter's bodies were found by police, with the mother not seen for 30 YEARS!
Pauline and Caroline Bessett were found both dead by police after coming to inspect the mother's home, which they believed was about to collapse. The mother became a recluse in her 40s after her husband died, neighbors said. The daughter hadn't been seen in six months, and neighbors remembered flies swarming the home in July of 2013. Police believe they died in June. Police were unable to find any clues to the daughter's death, but didn't believe it was suspicious.
2. Police are still baffled over a mummified Michigan woman.
It sounded like Pia Farrenkopf had a pretty great life, one where family members were used to not hearing from her for years at a time, according to the Detroit Free Press. The family would suddenly receive a postcard from Ireland, Italy, Amsterdam, or Austria from her travels. So when they heard that Farrenkopf's body was found in her home five years after her death, it must have been quite a shock. Her body had mummified and was frozen to the backseat of her car in her garage. Police still haven't solved her case, and believe it was either a medical cause or suicide.
3. Chattanooga brothers died together, but there's no signs of foul play.
Andrew and Anthony Johnson kind of weirded out their neighbors, who rarely saw them unless they were gardening wearing surgical masks. The 63-year-old men were found by police in 2014, bodies decomposing in their recliner chairs. They believe they had been there since 2011.
4. An Australian woman's body was found after EIGHT years.
Natalie Wood (no, not that Natalie Wood) was a bit of a recluse. She had lived in the home since 1924, and moved in with her brother and his wife for a few years until 1997 when she moved back into the home. Her brother was then diagnosed with dementia. Wood later told her brother that she had been diagnosed with a brain tumor, and communication slowly stopped. She was found in 2011 eight years after her death, with police believe she died a few months after the diagnosis. This is pretty sad, but 7 is heartbreaking.
5. A German man was found dead in his home, still in bed.
Police discovered the 59-year-old's decomposing body seven years after his death, according to Reuters. Next to his bed were some cigarettes, a television guide, and some Deutschemark coins, which went out of circulation after the Euro was introduced in 2002. The man was never reported missing, and believed to have died from natural causes.
6. A man still in his pajamas was found in Lille, France, 15 years after his death.
Authorities made the discovery in 2012, finding piles of unopened mail dating back to 1996. Police believe he was born in Spain in 1921, but had no relatives and lived alone.
7. This man died by suicide, and wasn't found for four years.
David Carter was well-liked by his friends and neighbors, but in 2007, he told them he was moving from Milwaukee, Wis. to New Mexico. A real estate worker came to repossess his home and found his remains in 2012. His body was on the staircase "nearly skeletonized," with a gunshot wound in his head, and a handgun lying on his chest. His cousin told reporters he had become withdrawn and started drinking after his mother died of cancer in 1997. He also had a daughter to a woman he never married, but was not a large part of her life, the Daily Mail says.
8. An elderly woman's body wasn't found for three years.
Neighbors believed Geneva Chambers had just upped and left in the middle of the night. But when the banked foreclosed her home in 2013, they discovered she had never moved out. Police found no suspicion of foul play in her death, and an autopsy came back calling her death "undetermined." This is pretty incredible, but number 11 is the longest I've ever heard of!
9. A man was found almost three years after his death... in only socks.
Simon Allen was a bit of a loner, according to neighbors. After not paying his rent for several months, deep cleaners came to his home in 2013 to put the home back on the market. They instead found his body lying behind an armchair. His neighbors said he was a bit of a drinker, and would hear him banging around the halls sometimes, but they all just kept to themselves.
10. A present-day mummy found a year after her death.
Author, activist and publisher Barbara Salinas-Norman was known as a trailblazer in recording Hispanic stories and traditions. But when she died at age 70, her body lay in her New Mexico home behind an unlocked door for a year unnoticed. Her body was found by her brother when he and his wife came from California to visit her after two years of unreturned phone calls and letters. Though highly intelligent, some who knew her described her as disturbed, hoarding objects in her home, missing payments, and losing contact with friends and family.
11. This one takes the record for longest unrecovered body.
A Croatian woman's body was found after 42 YEARS of lying in bed at her apartment. Police denied requests to enter Hedviga Golik's apartment for four decades, despite complaints by tenants and the city. The city had written on the door of her apartment not to enter the home. Neighbors didn't smell anything from the 83-year-old's apartment, because the windows were open when she was found. The room was still half-lit when the owners entered the home to find her decomposing body.
12. A 38-year-old woman's body was found after almost three years.
Joyce Carol Vincent had family and friends who were all concerned when the Londoner went missing. Vincent lay on the sofa, with the television still turned on and Christmas presents piled up in a corner. It was three years later that her body would be found after her home was repossessed. She was set up in the flat partially paid for by a domestic violence organization. Her home wasn't in a great neighborhood, which surprised her old friends who thought she would quickly be moving up in the world. Her life was later made into a film, Dreams of a Life.
Collage image viaBlockbuster Buster Wikia
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