Dead for Seven Years and Not Missed

In one of the saddest news stories I have read for a while, the Sydney Morning Herald reported about a Body found in bed after seven years. The Herald noted:

The decomposed corpse of a German man has been found alone in his bed after nearly seven years, police in the western city of Essen said today.The police said in a statement the man was 59 and unemployed at the time of his death. He most likely died of natural causes on November 30, 2000, the date he received a letter from the Welfare Office found in the flat, police said.

…

“No one missed him. No missing person report was ever filed,” the police said.

Even though he died in a nearly empty building, surely someone would have noticed some smell after a while, or a build-up of mail, or something.

That is so sad … to have been dead for seven years and not to have been missed by anybody.