Joyce Vincent

Joyce Vincent was born in London's Hammersmith area on 19 October 1965 and raised near Fulham Palace Road.[1] Her parents had emigrated to London from Grenada; she was of Dougla descent. Her father, Lawrence, was a carpenter of African descent and her mother, Lyris, was of Indian descent.[1] Her mother died when Vincent was 11, and her four older sisters took responsibility for her upbringing.[1][2] She had a strained relationship with her emotionally distant father, who she claimed had died in 2001 (he actually died in 2004, unaware that Vincent had predeceased him).[3][4] She attended Melcombe Primary School and Fulham Gilliatt School for Girls, and left school at age sixteen with no qualifications.[5] She had a wide circle of friends in the music industry and when she was 25, she attended and was video recorded in the backstage audience at the 1990 Wembley Concert, 'Nelson Mandela, International Tribute For a Free South Africa.' (BFI National Archive) Reportedly, she met Mandela at the concert and shook his hand.[1][5]

In 1985, Vincent began working as a secretary at OCL in the City of London.[1] She later worked at C.Itoh and Law Debenture before joining Ernst & Young.[2] She worked at Ernst & Young for four years in the treasury department, but resigned in March 2001 for unknown reasons.[1] Shortly afterwards, Vincent spent some time in a domestic abuse shelter in Haringey and worked as a cleaner in a budget hotel.[1] During this period, she became estranged from her family.[6] A source involved in the investigation said: "She detached herself from her family but there was no bust up. They are a really nice family. We understand she was in a relationship and there was a history of domestic violence."[7] It has been speculated that she was either ashamed to be a victim of domestic abuse or did not want to be found by her abuser.[8]

In February 2003, Vincent was moved into the bedsit flat above Wood Green Shopping City[9] where she later died. The flat was owned by the Metropolitan Housing Trust and was used to house victims of abuse.[10] In November 2003, after vomiting blood, she was hospitalised at North Middlesex Hospital for two days, due to a peptic ulcer.[11]

Vincent lived above the Shopping City in Wood Green in North London in a Housing Trust flat. The cause of her death is unknown, as is the date, though it is speculated to be around December 2003. She suffered from asthma and had a peptic ulcer at the time of her death, so some have suggested an asthma attack or complications surrounding her recent peptic ulcer as a possible cause of death. Her remains were described as "mostly skeletal" according to the pathologist, and she was lying on her back, next to a shopping bag, surrounded by Christmas presents she had wrapped but never delivered.[6] It is not known to whom the presents were addressed.[12] The refrigerator in her bedsit contained food with 2003 expiry date labels.

Neighbours had assumed the flat was unoccupied, and the odour of decomposing body tissue was attributed to nearby waste bins.[10] The flat's windows did not allow direct sight to the inside.[13] It was a noisy building which may explain why no one questioned the constant noise from the television, which remained turned on until she was discovered.[10] Half of her rent was being automatically paid to Metropolitan Housing Trust by benefits agencies, leading officials to believe that she was still alive.[6] With over two years' worth of unpaid rent totalling £2,400 that had accrued, housing officials decided to repossess the property.[6] Her corpse was discovered on 25 January 2006 when bailiffs had forced entry into the flat.[10] The television and heating were still running due to debt forgiveness and her bills being continually paid through automatic debit.[14][15]

The Metropolitan Housing Trust said that due to housing benefits covering the costs of rent for some period after Vincent's death, arrears had not been realised until much later.[2] The Trust also said that no concerns were raised by neighbours or visitors at any time during the two years between her death and discovery of the body.[2]

Vincent's remains were too badly decomposed to conduct a full post-mortem, and she had to be identified through dental records.[10] Police ruled death by natural causes as there was nothing to suggest foul play. The front door was double locked and there was no sign of a break-in.[16] At the time of her death she had a boyfriend, but the police were unable to locate him.[17] Her sisters had hired a private detective to look for her and contacted the Salvation Army, but these attempts proved unsuccessful.[4] The detective found the house where Vincent was living, and the family wrote letters to her, receiving no response as she was already dead by this time. As a result, the family concluded she had deliberately broken ties with them.[4][18]

The Glasgow Herald reported,

"...her friends noted her as someone who fled at signs of trouble, who walked out of jobs if she clashed with a colleague, and who moved from one flat to the next all over London. She didn't answer the phone to her sister and didn't appear to have her own circle of friends, instead relying on the company of relative strangers who came with the package of a new boyfriend, a colleague, or flatmate."[8]

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• List of unsolved deaths