From England we learn that Joan Cunnane passed away in here house, so full of stuff that she bought to make herself feel better, that searchers and police could not find her body in her house for hours.
Joan Cunnane was discovered at her home in Stockport, Greater Manchester after a lengthy search.
Officers say it took several hours to locate her body among the thousands of items piled up in every room.
The 77-year-old, who was last seen on December 26, was reported missing by her friend Roy Moran on Tuesday.
Mr Moran, also 77, said Mrs Cunnane had been a compulsive shopper for at least 15 years.
She would sometimes sleep at his house in Cheadle Hulme as her own bungalow was so full.
He said: “When we looked in her house we just could not believe it – it was completely full from floor to ceiling.
Joan Cunnane, 77, was crushed under 3ft of ornaments, clothes in suitcases and electrical goods, still in their untouched packaging.
The churchgoing spinster had stacked her shopping in huge precarious piles, leaving her just a 2ft-wide path to negotiate her tiny bungalow.
Twelve police with sniffer dogs took nearly two days to unload her hoard into a giant skip and find her body.
Even her Rover Metro was packed with candles, umbrellas, a teddy, shears and a foot pump.
“She had thousands of videos stacked up, the whole place was full.”
He said Mrs Cunnane started shopping to get out of the house after a group of youths began causing trouble in the area 15 years ago.
“I think that’s what started the pattern of her wanting to be out of the house every day,” he explained.
“She felt she had to do something, so she went round the shops.”
Mr Moran added: “She was not just buying for the sake of buying, everything was bought for a reason, and I think it gave her pleasure.”
“She went to John Lewis, Marks & Spencer and shopping malls because they are open late so she didn’t have to go home.
“I went into the house after she went missing – I went in three times and couldn’t find her.
“When they found the body, I asked where she was and the police officer said you would never have found her.
“There was stuff in every room, it was so bad there were concerns about the police dogs going in.
“There were thousands of videos. When I walked they all fell down. It was a death trap really.”
Joan went to Christmas Dinner with Roy at his home in Cheadle Hulme, near Stockport, before returning home alone.
Neighbours and friends became concened when they did not see her after Boxing Day.
The alarm was raised on Tuesday after she failed to make a series of hospital appointments.
One neighbour said: “I had never been in her house but I had an idea what it was like because of her car – I don’t know how she saw out of the back of it because, it was so full of stuff.
”Once she asked me for a favour – for me to help take the stuff out of the car to empty it. It took four hours.”
Joan is the second person in a WEEK to be killed by hoarding, which is linked to an obsessive-compulsive disorder.
The Sun told yesterday how Gordon Stewart, 74, died of thirst after getting lost in a maze of tunnels he had burrowed through rubbish at his home in Broughton, Bucks.
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