Strangest news story ever

[pjthompson]

Woman Sat Dead in Front of TV for 42 Years.

I mean, I can relate, but really... Sad and macabre.

Comments

[will-couvillier.livejournal.com]

...was there a motel nearby? Hummm.

[pjthompson]

Of the Mysteries? Maybe.

[will-couvillier.livejournal.com]

...owned by the Bates?

[pjthompson]

Ah, no. I was thinking of the Motel of the Mysteries, wherein archaeologists of the far future dig up the obviously holy shrine of the Toot n' Come Inn. They found a rare intact altar, with the "Sanitized For Your Protection" seal still upon it.

[will-couvillier.livejournal.com]

Ah, and here I was going to Norman Bates dead mother.

[pjthompson]

Another senseless mixing the cultural references... ;-)

[handworn.livejournal.com]

That's like one of those news stories that spins itself. There's no making that a metaphor; it is one already by the core of its essence.

[pjthompson]

It truly is.

[hominysnark.livejournal.com]

I hope it was a good channel, at least.

(yeah, sorry for the flipness, but it's too late to change my spots at this stage.)

[pjthompson]

My first reaction was not, "Oh, how sad." After "The horror! The horror!" I admit to having something of a gigglefest. And I almost immediately thought of Motel of the Mysteries.

So, spot on!

[inkbabies.livejournal.com]

how very sad!

[pjthompson]

Something those of us who live alone dread and joke about. I don't live alone at the moment, but I did for about ten years and I'd think such cheerful thoughts as, "I wonder how long it would take them to find my body if I just dropped dead?" If we have pets, we also wonderful other cheerful things that I won't go into at the moment...

[inkbabies.livejournal.com]

yeah...I've seen enough episodes of CSI to know what you're thinking there...

[pjthompson]

lol

[mnfaure.livejournal.com]

Sad and utterly bizarre. How could they not have known. The mind boggles.

[pjthompson]

She died in Communist Yugoslavia where the flats were supplied by the government and couldn't be taken away from a person no matter what. So nobody governmentistic would likely show up to boot her out. The fact that she was reported missing and nobody checked the flat is pretty strange--but again, we're dealing with a Communist bureaucracy here. "They pretend to pay us, we pretend to work." It probably wasn't worth anybody's time to check and after a week, she'd probably already been forgotten.

What's highly and sadly ironic to me is that she sat there all through the dissolution of the Yugoslavia, the civil war, independence, and it was only after economic recovery and the free market state (and an eye to more property acquisition) that she was discovered.

There's a story here somewhere!

[mnfaure.livejournal.com]

*nods* that all makes sense.

There's a story here somewhere!

Absolutely.

[pjthompson]

Even so, even so, it's pretty fricking unbelievable. (Although I'm pretty sure it wouldn't have gone on that long in a free market economy.) (See, there are benefits to capitalism.)

[mnfaure.livejournal.com]

*lol* Yes, your bones get a much quicker burial so someone can take over your home that much sooner. ;)

[pjthompson]

Exactly. Respective for the dead and profit. :-)

[mnfaure.livejournal.com]

bwahaha. You'll have to tell me which magazine and issue it's going to appear in. :D

[pjthompson]

Don't I wish.

[mrngglry98.livejournal.com]

I was just about to add to my response, "There's a story her somewhere!" when I looked up and saw that you'd already said it. ;)

[pjthompson]

I immediately started thinking, "How could this happen logically?" and putting together a scenario. Not that I plan to write it, but yanno, that's the way my mind works.

[mrngglry98.livejournal.com]

Wow. I mean...wow. Can I even begin on the ineptness of the police? How can one be missing for 42 years despite being in one's own apartment? Did she have a family looking for her? And how can it take 42 years before people start to wonder who owns that mysteriously "empty" flat? There's gotta be more to that story than reported. I kinda want to know the circumstances from 1966. hehe

[pjthompson]

I was going to say, "See my reply to Miq above," but you already have.

There's gotta be more to that story than reported. I kinda want to know the circumstances from 1966. hehe

Hmm. Wheels are spinning again.

[mnfaure.livejournal.com]

Like didn't anyone smell something???

[pjthompson]

Maybe they had a history of sewer problems in the neighborhood.

[mnfaure.livejournal.com]

That could explain it. I keep wondering what kind of food they ate on a regular basis. Not saying that, frex, cabbage, turnips, rutabaga, and sundry similar veggies smell like a dead person, but perhaps the building was rife with cooking smells, vinegar fumes, spices, etc.

[pjthompson]

Yeah, B.O., wonky garbage pick up, boiled Brussels sprouts, lots of garlic...ah, apartment living...

[mnfaure.livejournal.com]

Hmmm, I don't think you should take up real estate agent as a new job, not unless you're only going to sell houses. :P

[pjthompson]

No, I wouldn't call it a safe career option for me. :-)

[handworn.livejournal.com]

Can I even begin on the ineptness of the police?

You're right, those Communist or ex-Communist countries don't even do Big Brother well, which is what it would take for the police to know about the situation at all.

[mrngglry98.livejournal.com]

But she was reported missing. Doesn't that usually involve the police?

[pjthompson]

You're thinking too much in American terms, comrade. From everything I've read and heard about Communist bureaucracies, including the police, there wasn't much effort made on cases like this unless someone made a really big stink (if you'll pardon the expression) or there was some political angle to it. It was just easier to file a report saying you'd investigated when you hadn't. That sort of thing happened all the time. Everyone has this picture of Communist police agencies beginning so Big Brotherish and into everybody's lives all the time, but that was only in the cases that the government cared about. Unfortunately, the government could care less about a woman living alone without much family.

[mrngglry98.livejournal.com]

I had no impression of them being "Big Brother" like and knowing everything about everybody. I did, however, have the impression that they would've gone the step or two that would've taken them to the place where the woman lived, or could possibly live. They would've "detected", as detectives are supposed to do. ;) But yeah, I guess if they didn't really care, that's a different story.

[handworn.livejournal.com]

There may have been several police forces. And the neighbors thought she'd simply moved, so there goes most of the people who would notice a difference day-to-day. Lots of properties here in Philadelphia are abandoned for years before anyone investigates, and I've heard of deaths like this around here, too, though never for 42 years.

[pjthompson]

They only did Big Brother well if their bosses cared about issues. Pensioners and missing non-politicos didn't matter at all.