Police are investigating the discovery of the body of 68-year-old Joyce "Joy" O'Mahony's body at her home in Cork city. No foul play is expected and it is believed that she died some 19 months ago.
Joyce O'Mahony lived in a semi-detached two-storey home in the Brookfield Lawn Estate, near Lough in Cork city. Her body was discovered by a man who was working for a pest control company. He had being working on determining the source of an infestation in a nearby house which led him discovering O'Mahoney's remains in her back room.
The police, paramedics, and Cork City's Fire Brigade attended the scene. Police found no evidence of injury or forced entrance at the house, suggesting no foul play.
Assistant State Pathologist Dr. Margot Bolster will carry out a postmortem on Wednesday morning. Police have send that dental records will be needed to formally indentify the deceased.
The Irish Times reports that door-to-door inquiries reveal O'Mahony was last seen some time in 2021 but may have been alive for another year after that.
Some items found in her house established that she was alive mid-November 2022. This would indicate that she had been dead for 19 months.
The police will examine O'Mahony's bank and phone records, the unopened mail in her house and the contents of her kitchen. All evidence will along with the pathologist's results will be added to a file for the Cork City Coroner, Philip Comyn.
According to the Times, O'Mahony had become "quite reclusive and rarely venturing out."
Locals said O'Mahony only left her house at night to do groceries. Many on the estate believed her house was derelict.
One said "We’re here over a year and we were told the house was derelict and it certainly looked that way with that tree growing all over the garden and covering the car with its flat tyres."
Another said "I walk my dog here every day and to think I’ve been passing that house with that poor woman in there – it’s desperately sad.”
She is predeceased by her mother, Patricia (91) who died in a nursing home in 2021 and her father, Dr. Timothy O'Mahony (84) who died in 2010. O'Mahony is survived by a sister and two brothers but she had not been in contact with them for years.
A campaigner for the elderly in Cork, Paddy O’Brien, warned that elderly people are lying dead and undiscovered in their homes far too frequently.
Speaking to Neil Prendeville on Cork’s Red FM, O'Brien suggested that the government should introduce a safety net tha would lead to vulnerable people being assisted or found dead far earlier.
“It is a desperate tragedy. To alleviate any more tragedies what has to happen is that the social welfare people must change their system completely.
"Two years ago I had a long discussion on the phone with the Social Welfare and I said that they were making one error. That is if a person doesn’t pick up their pension for six weeks that is recognised in head office and they write to the recipient of the pension.
"If the social welfare do not get a reply in six weeks they stop the payment. And at that point I said that ‘you shouldn’t write to the person you should tell the gardaí and (they could go) and do something.’ A lot of deaths could be avoided if there was a system in place.”
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