21 Facts About Joyce Vincent

Joyce Carol Vincent was an English woman whose death went unnoticed for more than 2 years as her corpse lay undiscovered at her bedsit in north London.

Joyce Vincent resigned from her job in 2001, and moved into a shelter for victims of domestic abuse.

Joyce Vincent's remains were discovered on 25 January 2006, with the cause of death believed to be either an asthma attack or complications from a recent peptic ulcer.

The film and Joyce Vincent's life inspired musician Steven Wilson's album Hand.

Joyce Vincent was born in London's Hammersmith area on 19 October 1965 and raised near Fulham Palace Road.

Joyce Vincent's parents had immigrated to London from Grenada; she was of Dougla descent.

Joyce Vincent's father, Lawrence, was a carpenter of African descent and her mother, Lyris, was of Indian descent.

Joyce Vincent's mother died when Vincent was 11, and her four older sisters took responsibility for her upbringing.

Joyce Vincent had a strained relationship with her emotionally distant father, who she claimed had died in 2001.

Joyce Vincent attended Melcombe Primary School and Fulham Gilliatt School for Girls, and left school at age sixteen with no qualifications.

Joyce Vincent had a wide circle of friends in the music industry and when she was 24, she attended and was video recorded in the backstage audience at the concert Nelson Mandela: An International Tribute for a Free South Africa in April 1990 at Wembley Stadium.

In 1985, Joyce Vincent began working as a secretary at OCL in the City of London.

Shortly afterwards, Joyce Vincent spent some time in a domestic abuse shelter in Haringey and worked as a cleaner in a budget hotel.

In February 2003, Joyce Vincent was moved into the bedsit flat above Wood Green Shopping City where she later died.

Joyce Vincent lived above the Shopping City in Wood Green in North London in a Housing Trust flat.

Joyce Vincent suffered from asthma and had a peptic ulcer at the time of her death, so some have suggested an asthma attack or complications surrounding her recent peptic ulcer as a possible cause of death.

Joyce Vincent's remains were described as "mostly skeletal" according to the pathologist, and she was lying on her back, next to a shopping bag, surrounded by Christmas presents she had wrapped but never delivered.

Joyce Vincent's corpse was discovered on 25 January 2006 when bailiffs had forced entry into the flat.

Joyce Vincent's remains were too badly decomposed to conduct a full post-mortem, and she had to be identified through dental records.

Joyce Vincent's sisters had hired a private detective to look for her and contacted the Salvation Army, but these attempts proved unsuccessful.

The detective found the previous address where Joyce Vincent had been living, and the family wrote letters to her there, receiving no response.