A woman who was caught wheeling her dead daughter’s body through a UK shopping centre gave police a chilling response when she was stopped by officers.
Joan Kathleen Turnell was stopped by police as she pushed her daughter Tracey’s remains around in a wheelchair. Joan, then 77, believed her daughter had been dead for over a year.
It came after staff at a housing association raised concerns about Joan’s behaviour in November 2023. Neighbours had previously complained about a “horrendous smell” and a fly infestation, reports the Manchester Evening News.
Housing association staff visited the flat Joan and Tracey shared, but the pensioner refused to let them into her home. According to the Romford Recorder, she later wrapped Tracey’s body in a red coat and took it to the shopping centre, seemingly to demonstrate that her daughter was still alive.
Housing officers followed her and noticed a “vile smell” coming from the wheelchair when they walked past. It was then they decided to contact the Metropolitan Police.
Officers intercepted Joan in the town centre and moved the wheelchair to a secluded car park, where they uncovered a “heavily decomposed body” under the hood, reports the Mirror.
When stopped by the police, Joan chillingly remarked: “Why can’t they just leave us alone? We have been fine and I have been looking after her.”
At an inquest into Tracey’s death, senior coroner Graeme Irvine explained Joan was sectioned under the Mental Health Act. Police meanwhile visited her flat, discovering it to be “extremely hazardous” with faeces and other bodily fluids on the walls and floor.
Officers described it as “extremely hazardous” with faeces and other bodily fluids on the walls and floor. They found “clear signs of infestation of rodents and bugs”. Joan was later diagnosed with prolonged grief disorder and had a brain tumour.
She was not required to attend the inquest to give evidence as it was deemed “inhumane” due to her “severe” mental health problems. Nor was Joan prosecuted for preventing the burial of her daughter.
She wrote to the court saying she does not know what caused Tracey’s death, and that she didn’t call for an ambulance because they “could not help”. She added: “I kept Tracey with me because I couldn’t bear to part with her. I loved her too much.”
Tracey lived with multiple physical issues including a curved spine, damaged knee, and deformed arms, according to The Recorder. Joan shared that her wheelchair-bound daughter had no social connections and had never been in a romantic relationship.
Mr Irvine characterized the family lifestyle as “off grid” and “withdrawn”, believing that Tracey’s life was heavily dependent on her mother. Neither Joan nor Tracey were enrolled with a GP, held government IDs or had Internet access.
With no phone and no photographs of Tracey available, the police ultimately resorted to DNA for identification purposes.
Joan said she couldn’t remember when Tracey died, suspecting it to be in September 2022. She told the inquest they had been watching a film at the time, with Tracey’s eyes becoming “fixed and dilated” after she became unresponsive.
Due to the advanced state of decomposition of Tracey’s remains, pathologists were unable to determine an exact cause of death, resulting in the coroner declaring it inconclusive with an “unascertained conclusion”.
Recording an open verdict, he criticised the local authority, Waltham Forest council, for “missed opportunities” to intervene. He added: “The very tragic and concerning circumstances under which Miss Turnell’s death was discovered have caused me grave concerns.”
