ZAGREB - Governments have changed. War erupted and ended. Neighbours had children, and then grandchildren. But Hedviga Golik never left her tiny apartment in Croatia's capital - until her mummified body was carried out this week, 35 years after she died.
Police said today that no one ever reported Golik missing and no one has come to claim her body.
Residents of her loft building in downtown Zagreb had broken into Golik's flat after deciding that the apartment should belong to them, and not to her. Startled by the remains in bed, they called police.
Forensics experts said Golik likely died in 1973, about the time a neighbour last saw her. Expert Davor Strinovic said she seemed to have died of natural causes, but "it's almost impossible to say for certain" after so much time.
Some of Golik's neighbours claimed she had talked about going abroad.
Experts said her windows had been open, likely diminishing the smell. It remained unclear who - if anyone - was paying her bills and who exactly owned the apartment. In the 1970s, when Golik died, apartments were state-owned.
The discovery of Golik's body on Tuesday prompted media debates on how it is possible for a woman to die so long ago without anyone noticing. One local journalist said it showed people were becoming more alienated.
"My dear neighbours! Please keep on being curious and a bit tiresome, as you have been so far," Merita Arslani wrote in the Jutarnji list daily.
- AP
I'm kind of surprised it took them this long to break in. I'm slightly curious about the state of her place after so long, especially with the windows being open. I also wonder how well-preserved the body was.
Again, like another story we've talked about recently, the first thought in my mind was Silence of the Lamb's J. Gumb's basement bathroom of nightmares with someone... in the tub.
I know for a fact that corpses do not last very long without rotting into a blob of nothing. After a long time it is a freaking puddle and not even recognizable as a human. It looks disgusting and it SMELLS VERY BAD. You would have to have the building it's in be in a glass bubble not to smell it unless it was in the middle of nowhere. You know those off the grid places everyone wants to pack off and run to? Like I said, there is no way someone wouldn't of found out sooner.
People get mummified all the time, it's not that unusual to see on the news about people being discovered who have had dead family members in their homes for months or years. This is a rather extreme example, but it's certainly not outside the realm of possibility. This is the really shocking part:
FSTargetDrone wrote:Residents of her loft building in downtown Zagreb had broken into Golik's flat after deciding that the apartment should belong to them, and not to her. Startled by the remains in bed, they called police.
"Hey lady, pack your bags, we're moving into your apartment! Hey lady, I said pack your OHGOD!!"
I wonder if this is the same woman whom Finnish newspapers reported to have "watched" TV for the entire time of being, well, dead and all.
The article does raise a good question - who paid her bills during her time as an undiscovered body?
Confiteor Deo omnipotenti; beatae Mariae semper Virgini; beato Michaeli Archangelo; sanctis Apostolis, omnibus sanctis... Tibit Pater, quia peccavi nimis, cogitatione, verbo et opere, mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa! Kyrie Eleison!
The Imperial Senate (defunct) * Knights Astrum Clades * The Mess
Buddha wrote:I know for a fact that corpses do not last very long without rotting into a blob of nothing. After a long time it is a freaking puddle and not even recognizable as a human. It looks disgusting and it SMELLS VERY BAD. You would have to have the building it's in be in a glass bubble not to smell it unless it was in the middle of nowhere. You know those off the grid places everyone wants to pack off and run to? Like I said, there is no way someone wouldn't of found out sooner.
Well, there was the story of that crazy woman who kept a body on the toilet of the home's only bathroom for a few months and when the police found out about it, it was described iin that article as "something piled on what appeared to be a toilet."
Anyway, as gizmojumpjet said, mummification does happen. It's just odd that it was undiscovered for so long.
I remember awhile back, I saw something on TV about people who have to clean up when a dead body is discovered that's been decaying for some time. In the one incident I remember from that show, the cleaners talked about how the fluids from the decomposing body traveled through the floor and down into the ceiling of the apartment below. That has to be just.. horrifying. Especially when you live downstairs and find out what the leak was.
