By whom?
Several years ago, we had a neighbour who was a widower - he was only 63 and lived alone.
One morning I noticed he had not taken his milk in from the doorstep, and by lunchtime, another neighbour was concerned because they noticed he had not pulled back the curtains or opened any windows.
We contacted his son, who did not normally visit very often, but by early evening, he had brought a policeman along to witness his actions, as he smashed the kitchen window and broke into the house.
He found his father dead in his bed. He had a massive heart attack the previous night. But it was less than 24 hours afterwards that his death was discovered.
How on earth can it take anyone 42 years to get into the place and find a person dead?!?
There are several factors which must have made neighbours suspicious - not least the post piling up behind the door, or the services being cut off through non-payment of bills, or even (although not nice to speak of) the smell!
I beleive it was a flat - well, I'm amazed that residents of neighbouring flats could not smell anything unpleasant.
