Jordi Giro got more than he bargained for when he inspected for the first time a flat in Roses (Girona) he bought at auction last week. For on the sofa in the living room of the property he found the mummified corpse of the previous owner, a woman in her mid-fifties, who lived alone and who was estranged from her children who live in Madrid.
Forensic experts estimate that the woman's body may have been there since she stopped making payments on the flat in 2001, and suspect that she died of natural causes. A police source explained that it is thought that the body had not rotted probably as a result of the salty sea air.
The Mas Matas residential estate where the woman's body was found has a high turnover of temporary visitors which helps explain how the woman's disappearance had gone unnoticed for so long.
Mr Giro made the discovery when he went to check whether the ground floor flat had been damaged in a fire at the complex last Saturday.
