Mummified woman who lay dead in flat for three years wrote two harrowing words in diary

Laura Winham, 41, lay dead in her Woking flat for three years before her body was finally discovered by her brother along with tragic diary extracts, an inquest heard

A woman who whose body was found in her flat three years after she died had written "I'm starving" in a diary, an inquest heard.

Laura Winham, from Woking, also wrote "I can't believe I'm surviving this long" across the pages of the diary and a calendar that police discovered at her home.

Her family had been worried about the 41-year-old's wellbeing and had contacted police about breaking into her flat. And it was her brother who found the "mummified and almost skeletal" remains when he entered her home on May 24, 2021.

While pronouncing the cause of death as 'unascertained', the pathologist at Surrey Coroner's Court admitted it was impossible to nail down the exact time Laura passed away. Yet, a calendar discovered in her living quarters suggested she had been marking off days until November 1, 2017.

Dr Karen Henderson, the coroner, delved into heartbreaking snippets from Ms Winham's journal that laid bare her battle to afford food and make ends meet.

A note, dating back to September 28, 2017, recounted how she was unable to use her mobile phone on September 7 and detailed a trip to Tesco which preceded a stretch of silence. Laura also wrote about sleeping for weeks and neglecting to stock food for months due to doubts about the future, reports the Liverpool Echo.

Other passages in the diary revealed her scraping by on potatoes and cheese, and worrying "about five pounds left on me" while also commenting that she made it through a whole month following her last shopping trip in October 2017. The court heard details from Ms Winham's diary, with her family in attendance, including a note from September 15, 2017, read: "Wish I'd bought rice. Dreaming of (food). Anyway, I'm starving." But entries stopped suddenly after November 1, 2017.

Her sister Nicola had previously shared how Ms Winham was anxious about leaving her apartment and meticulously used her diary to schedule online purchases and rubbish removal. Police pictures of her home showed a fridge with only butter and ketchup and cupboards stocked meagrely with spices and condiments.

The police also stumbled upon collections of small change. The inquest understood that Ms Winham, troubled by mental health problems which led her to fear her family would harm her, had drifted apart from her relatives.

Her sister Nicola told the inquest about their last face-to-face visit in 2009, noting that even social media contact wound down by 2014 following a Facebook message from her sister saying: "It is best to have minimum/no contact. And communications with the family. It is totally out of my hands. There is nothing I can do. Everything I say will get repeated and relayed back. Be patient."

Nicola narrated to the court how the family had kept their distance, due to what they understood were Ms Winham's wishes: "We knew that contact with us exacerbated her mental health difficulties." At the inquest, Susan Harrison, who chaired the safeguarding adults review panel following Ms Winham's death, stated that "the family had done absolutely everything they could have done in these circumstances given Laura was so determined to keep them at arm's length".

Meanwhile, Nicola recounted the harrowing moment her brother and mother discovered Ms Winham's body, saying: "They were shouting her name and looking through the letterbox. My brother saw what he thought was a seriously decomposed body. They called the police and forced entry. Inside they found a mummified and almost skeletal body. Both of them saw this and the shock can never be forgotten." All the evidence has now been presented in the inquest and it is anticipated that the coroner will set a date to release her findings at a later stage.