A woman who lay dead in her flat for three years before being discovered left behind heartbreaking diary entries, the inquest into her death has revealed. Laura Winham’s soul-crushing notes included messages like, “I’m starving” and “I can’t believe I’m surviving this long”.
On May 24, 2021, Laura’s “mummified and almost skeletal” remains were discovered by her concerned brother at her home in Woking, Surrey. Her family had begged cops to gain entry into her home amid escalating concerns over her safety.
At Surrey Coroner’s Court this week, the pathologist could not determine an exact cause of death or pinpoint when she died. Nonetheless, a narrative of her final days emerged through a calendar in Ms Winham’s flat that showed marked dates up to November 1, 2017, suggesting the possible length of her isolation.
Coroner Dr Karen Henderson cited diary excerpts read at the inquest that evidenced Ms Winham’s struggles with food and her financial woes.
A tragic journal entry from September 28, 2017, recounted her phone dying earlier that month and a last visit to Tesco, after which she seemed to have cut off all contact. She detailed long periods of sleep and a profound food shortage for months, driven by uncertain circumstances, reports the Liverpool Echo.
Diary entries further told of her subsistence on potatoes and cheese, with barely five pounds to her name, and astonishment at enduring one more month following her most recent grocery shop in October 2017.
Laura’s diary was produced in court, showing her relatives in attendance that she had maintained a regular log filled with succinct notes until entries suddenly stopped on November 1, 2017. An extract from September 15, 2017 lamented: “Wish I’d bought rice. Dreaming of (food). Anyway, I’m starving.”
Dr Henderson observed this was followed by what seemed to be recipes from a cookbook, complete with page references. Beforehand, Nicola, Ms Winham’s sister, told the court about her sister’s trepidation over leaving her home, remarking that she used the calendar to remember online shopping days and when to take out the bins.
Police photos of Ms Winham’s flat were presented in the courtroom on Thursday, uncovering a scarcely stocked fridge and cupboards with merely basic condiments. Additionally, authorities found several bags of one and two pence coins.
The inquest heard that Ms Winham’s family had lost contact due to her mental health struggles, which lead her to believe that they would cause her harm.
A heartfelt recollection by Nicola cited their final face-to-face meeting back in 2009 and mentioned that, by 2014, even social media contact ceased following a telling Facebook message from her, which read: “It is best to have minimum/no contact. And communications with the family. It is totally out of my hands. There is nothing I can do. Everything I say will get repeated and relayed back. Be patient.”
The family upheld what they believed were Laura’s wishes for no contact, as her sibling Nicola told in court: “We knew that contact with us exacerbated her mental health difficulties.”
During the inquest, Susan Harrison, who oversaw the safeguarding adults review panel after Ms Winham’s demise, said that “the family had done absolutely everything they could have done in these circumstances given Laura was so determined to keep them at arm’s length”.
Nicola also recounted the harrowing moment when her brother and mother, worried for Laura’s well-being, went to her flat.
She said: “They were shouting her name and looking through the letterbox. My brother saw what he thought was a seriously decomposed body. They called the police and forced entry. Inside they found a mummified and almost skeletal body. Both of them saw this and the shock can never be forgotten.”
All the evidence has now been presented in the inquest and it is anticipated that the coroner will set a date to release her findings at a later stage.
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