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‘Sleeping’ man had been dead for two weeks

A man in his eighties who had been laying dead in his bed for up to two weeks was presumed to be sleeping by his wife and son.

Published: 18 October 2012 10:08 CEST

A nurse found the body, already decomposing, in bed during a medical visit for his 42-year-old son at the house in Aix-les-Bains, in the Savoie region.

Neither the son or the man’s wife, both of whom suffer from psychiatric illnesses, realised he had died, despite the wife sleeping in the same bedroom as the body.

“We took him food to eat, but he was sleeping,” the son told the authorities, according to local paper l'Essor Savoyard.

Police said the nurse had visited the house two weeks prior to the discovery of the body, which led them to believe that the man had been dead for between one and two weeks.

Soon after the discovery, the wife was admitted to hospital for “quite serious” psychiatric problems.

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NORWAY

Body found in Oslo flat nine years after death

A man lay dead in his flat for nine years before being discovered in December, police in Oslo have said.

Published: 9 April 2021 11:20 CEST
Body found in Oslo flat nine years after death
Photo by pichet wong from Pexels

The man, who was in his sixties, had been married more than once and also had children, national broadcaster NRK reports.

His name has been kept anonymous. According to neighbours he liked to keep to himself and when they didn’t see him, they thought he had moved or been taken to assisted living.

“Based on the details we have, it is obviously a person who has chosen to have little contact with others,” Grethe Lien Metild, chief of Oslo Police District, told NRK.

His body was discovered when a caretaker for the building he was living in requested police open the apartment so he could carry out his work.

“We have thought it about a lot, my colleagues and people who have worked with this for many years. This is a special case, and it makes us ask questions about how it could happen,” Metild said.

Police believe the man died in April 2011, based on a carton of milk and a letter that were found in his apartment. An autopsy has shown he died of natural causes.

READ ALSO: Immigrants in Norway more likely to be affected by loneliness

His pension was suspended in 2018 when the Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration (NAV) could not get in touch with him, but his bills were still paid out of his bank account and suspended pension fund.

Arne Krokan, a professor at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, said the man’s death would have unlikely gone unnoticed for so long if he had died 30 years ago.

“In a way, it is the price we have paid to get digital services,” he said to NRK.

Last year 27 people were found in Oslo, Asker or Bærum seven days or more after dying. The year before the number was 32 people. Of these, one was dead for almost seven months before being discovered.

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