Neighbours’ gruesome discovery leads to finding missing woman

IT WAS a scene that only Hollywood's horror film producers could conjure up: A skeleton sits in front of a bed, a woman watches and the stench of decaying flesh wafts through the street.

- TRACY-LYNN RUITERS

Only this happened in a quiet street in the seaside suburb of Muizenberg on the False Bay coast.

As the summer season took its last breath and tourists headed home, neighbours in Scarboro Road, made a gruesome discovery that had them talking for months. It wasn't your usual murder or crime, or even a murder or crime at all.

Before that, they were wondering about the absence of one neighbour in particular, that of a 90-year old lady who they haven't seen for some time. Since they hadn't heard of a death or a funeral from that particular address, they assumed all was in order and that she and her daughter were just staying indoors.

But what made them even more suspicious was when they noticed that the lights stayed off and the bins went untouched. Each time they checked, the daughter insisted her mother was merely sleeping. Even during an earlier police visit, she reassured officers that everything was fine.

It was only on the third visit, when an inquisitive neighbour involved a friend of the old lady, that the gruesome discovery was made. The decaying body of the elderly woman was found on her knees in front of her bed, her walker in front of her as if she had tried to reach the bed but collapsed.

Neighbours told this reporter that while they occasionally noticed an unpleasant smell, they never suspected anything was amiss.

“Everyone knows them, but our community isn’t the type to be nosy. We look out for each other,” one neighbour ventured an explanation.

Another said she noticed more flies around the house but assumed it was due to living near the ocean.