Joan Kathleen Turnell kept her daughter Tracey’s dead body in their shared flat in Leyton for over a year before she was discovered, inquest told
An elderly woman was intercepted by Met Police as she pushed her daughter’s remains around a shopping centre in Walthamstow, an inquest heard.
Joan Kathleen Turnell, then 77, had kept her daughter Tracey’s dead body in their shared flat in Leyton, east London, for over a year before she was discovered.
Neighbours had been complaining to the housing association for months about “horrendous smells” and a fly infestation, East London Coroner’s Court was told.
Housing association staff were dispatched to the property, but when Joan refused them entry, they chose to follow her to the High Street on November 7, 2023.
In a bid to convince the staff that her daughter was still alive, Joan wrapped Tracey’s remains in a red coat and wheeled her out in a wheelchair.
But as she passed, the staff noticed a “vile smell” and called police while following her, according to the Romford Recorder.
Police stopped Joan outside the 17 & Central shopping centre on Selborne Road where they found a “heavily decomposed body”, senior coroner Graeme Irvine said at the inquest, attended by the newspaper.
At an inquest into Tracey Turnell’s death, held on Tuesday, January 28, Mr Irvine said Joan had “severe” mental health problems and had been sectioned under the Mental Health Act.
A statement from Joan to the coroner read: “I kept Tracey with me because I couldn’t bear to part with her. I loved her too much.”
Mr Irvine told the court: “I found it inhumane to summons Mrs Turnell here today to give live evidence. I don’t think the nature and quality of her evidence would have assisted me.”
The newspaper reported Joan had been diagnosed with prolonged grief disorder and was found to be suffering from a brain tumour.
When police attended Joan and Tracey’s flat in Whitehouse Mews, they found “faeces and other unknown bodily deposits on the floor and walls”.
Joan denied causing her daughter’s death and in a statement to the coroner she said: “I do not know what caused my daughter’s death.”
East London Coroner’s Court heard Tracey Turnell, born in October 1971, suffered from a curved spine, a damaged knee and deformed arms.
Joan said her daughter had no friends and no romantic partners. She did not own a phone and police never found a photograph of her.
She had to be identified by DNA. In her statement about the day Tracey died, Joan described how they had been watching a film together. When it ended, she attempted to speak to her daughter but received no response.
Joan said she could not remember an exact date of Tracey’s death but believed it to be around September of 2022.
The body was so decomposed by November 2023 that a pathologist was unable to identify a cause of death.
Joan was never prosecuted for preventing the unlawful burial of her daughter’s body.
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