Neighbour of man who was dead in flat for months didn’t know what he looked like

A badly decomposed body was discovered by a man delivering leaflets more than a month after his death.

Michael Roy Palmer, 57, of Higher Bugle, spent much of his life as a recluse and none of his neighbours could report a last sighting – or any sighting of him at all.

Police say during their enquiries it was revealed that those living in neighbouring properties didn’t even know what he looked like.

An inquest hearing held this week to determine how and when he died was told that Mr Palmer had been living alone at the dilapidated property for much of his life and was not in touch with any friends or family.

It took police a significant amount of time to track down any next of kin because of this and, due to how badly decomposed his body was, they couldn’t formally identify him either.

Guy Davies, the assistant coroner at Cornwall’s Coroner’s Court, in Truro, heard how police were only able to link the body to Mr Palmer due to him being the registered owner of the property and of a vehicle found parked in the drive.

He was discovered on September 18, 2023, when a man delivering leaflets saw someone lying on the floor in the living room with a light on and called 999 at around 11pm.

Police officers attended the address and described it as ‘so heavily overgrown’ outside they struggled to gain access and had to force entry through the front door.

Inside they found a badly decomposed person and were unable to identify their age, race or gender.

It was believed the person had been there ‘a considerable amount of time’. The gas heater was in the on position but had run out of gas, further indicating the passage of time.

Detective Sergeant Jonathan Harcourt said the property was in poor condition although the house was tidy.

He said the advanced state of decomposition meant it would have been difficult to determine if any crime or assault had been committed but there was no evidence to suggest this had been the case inside.

In a search for evidence that might have helped determine when Mr Palmer died, a shopping receipt dated August 1 was located.

The vehicle registration was also picked up on police automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) cameras in the St Austell area on that same date.

Dr Grigor, who conducted a post-mortem, said the body was in one of the latest decomposition stages you can get calling it ‘skeletonisation’. He said this indicated the body was found up to two months post-death.

He said this limited the amount of information available and made it difficult to look for a natural cause of death. A toxicology examination that was taken did not provide any additional evidence.

The inquest heard Mr Palmer had not been seen or spoken to family for some 30 years and they only became aware of his death in around April of this year due to the probate of his estate.

Mr Davies concluded Mr Palmer was a recluse who died of natural causes although the exact causes could be unascertained due to the advanced decomposition.

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