On Tuesday, a bailiff, an estate agent and two locksmiths finally discovered what had happened to Ms Leitrim when they broke into her flat to discover her mummified remains. They had finally broken in over unpaid debts. Dorset Police have confirmed that they had been alerted to a body, believed to be that of a woman in her seventies. The police have said they are not treating the death as suspicious.
In an interview with the BBC, one of Ms Leitrim’s neighbours, John Stanley, said: “It’s horrifying that, after that amount of time, why hadn’t anybody noticed it? Because we thought she moved out. She owned a car – the car disappeared – so we automatically thought the lady’s moved out and that was it.”
Another neighbour how lives on the same street, Ruth Evans said: “To be honest, I’m still coming to terms with it. I haven’t stopped shaking in two days. You feel so guilty that we didn’t try knocking on the door or try to get into the flat or report it to somebody but we genuinely thought she had moved away.”