# Auto-payments hide woman's death for six years
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/auto-payments-hide-womans-death-for-six-years/683180
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [March 8, 2014, 7:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/auto-payments-hide-womans-death-for-six-years/683180 "2014-03-08T07:06:09Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)
#### Post date: [March 8, 2014, 7:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/auto-payments-hide-womans-death-for-six-years/683180/1 "2014-03-08T07:06:09Z")
[Link](http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/07/us/michigan-mummified-body-found/index.html?hpt=hp_t2)
A Michigan woman was last seen by her employer in 2008. Her body was found in her car, in her garage, with the key halfway into the ignition, this week. She’d had a habit of travelling, and no one thought it too unusual for her to not be at home at any given time. Her bills were paid automatically from her bank account, and the Post Office collected her mail so there was not a pile of it. A neighbour mowed her lawn over the years. Eventually the money ran out and the house was foreclosed upon. A workman found her mummified body when the bank sent him to the house to repair a hole in the roof. She would have been 49 now, had she not died.
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### Author:  [@randompattern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/randompattern)
#### Post date: [March 8, 2014, 7:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/auto-payments-hide-womans-death-for-six-years/683180/2 "2014-03-08T07:14:07Z")
I’m puzzled as to why her employer never wondered what happened to her. Sad story.
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### Author:  [@kambuckta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kambuckta)
#### Post date: [March 8, 2014, 7:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/auto-payments-hide-womans-death-for-six-years/683180/3 "2014-03-08T07:20:54Z")
I know I don’t want a song and dance when I finally cark it, but damn…six years and _nobody_ notices you’re gone? That’s just so sad on so many levels.
[Eric Bogle wrote a song about an elderly woman in Sydney, her body found also mummified many years after her death.](http://ericbogle.net/lyrics/lyricspdf/areasonforitall.pdf)
Way to make my Saturday night a buoyant one ya bastard \*\*Johnny. \*\* 🆒
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### Author:  [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)
#### Post date: [March 8, 2014, 8:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/auto-payments-hide-womans-death-for-six-years/683180/4 "2014-03-08T08:57:10Z")
Haven’t there been 22 year (large margin of error) versions of this? Sometimes it’s in Europe or something, where the law makes it easier to be missed, but not always. Yes: employer WTF, and nobody noticing = sad. I’m pretty sure my neighbors would never notice, but glad I have _some_ people to find out.
Everything’s better with Eric Bogle.
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### Author:  [@CrazyCatLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CrazyCatLady)
#### Post date: [March 8, 2014, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/auto-payments-hide-womans-death-for-six-years/683180/5 "2014-03-08T13:23:25Z")
> [@kambuckta](#):
>
> I know I don’t want a song and dance when I finally cark it, but damn…six years and _nobody_ notices you’re gone?
Apparently one of the neighbors had gotten concerned about her a year or so before her boss last saw her and had the police do a welfare check. The cops found no signs of anything amiss, and she appears to have turned up eventually. After that, I can see the neighbors assuming it’s the same sort of situation. But yeah, six years and no friend or family member worries about where you are? As you say, damn.
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### Author:  [@Mighty\_Girl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mighty_Girl)
#### Post date: [March 8, 2014, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/auto-payments-hide-womans-death-for-six-years/683180/6 "2014-03-08T13:25:58Z")
So, does the bank get to keep the house and payments made post-mortem?
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### Author:  [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)
#### Post date: [March 8, 2014, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/auto-payments-hide-womans-death-for-six-years/683180/7 "2014-03-08T14:46:33Z")
> [@randompattern](#):
>
> I’m puzzled as to why her employer never wondered what happened to her. Sad story.
Yeah, that’s what I can’t figure out. I assume they noticed she wasn’t showing up for work anymore? And nobody bothered to contact the police?
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### Author:  [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)
#### Post date: [March 8, 2014, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/auto-payments-hide-womans-death-for-six-years/683180/8 "2014-03-08T15:14:15Z")
Some employers really just don’t give a damn. Someone doesn’t show up the attitude is “That slacker! Good riddance!” and it just doesn’t occur to them that something bad might have happened to the person.
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### Author:  [@Catamount](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catamount)
#### Post date: [March 8, 2014, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/auto-payments-hide-womans-death-for-six-years/683180/9 "2014-03-08T18:03:30Z")
This is why I don’t do automatic bill pay. If I die, I want someone to notice \*before \*I’m mummified in a car.
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### Author:  [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)
#### Post date: [March 8, 2014, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/auto-payments-hide-womans-death-for-six-years/683180/10 "2014-03-08T18:06:29Z")
> [@SpazCat](#):
>
> This is why I don’t do automatic bill pay. If I die, I want someone to notice \*before \*I’m mummified in a car.
Don’t get mummified in a car. Get DirectTV. 😉
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### Author:  [@USCDiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/USCDiver)
#### Post date: [March 8, 2014, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/auto-payments-hide-womans-death-for-six-years/683180/11 "2014-03-08T18:17:42Z")
I’m impressed she had enough saved to pay all her bills for 6 years!
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### Author:  [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)
#### Post date: [March 8, 2014, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/auto-payments-hide-womans-death-for-six-years/683180/12 "2014-03-08T18:19:20Z")
> [@running\_coach](#):
>
> Don’t get mummified in a car. Get DirectTV. 😉
😃
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### Author:  [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)
#### Post date: [March 8, 2014, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/auto-payments-hide-womans-death-for-six-years/683180/13 "2014-03-08T18:22:24Z")
I can see mowing the neighbor’s lawn once or twice, but for six years? I’d have said the hell with it much sooner.
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### Author:  [@CatherineZeta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CatherineZeta)
#### Post date: [March 8, 2014, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/auto-payments-hide-womans-death-for-six-years/683180/14 "2014-03-08T18:25:12Z")
Reminds me of this woman: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joyce\_Carol\_Vincent](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joyce_Carol_Vincent).
Fun and vivacious, but with a habit of disappearing and clearly something was very wrong in her life- possibly a domestic violence situation. She had recently quit her job and moved to council housing (UK version of subsidized housing, not sure how similar it is to Section 8).
A documentary was made about her. It looks fascinating, but I’m afraid it’ll be incredibly depressing so I have not watched it. [http://dreamsofalife.com/home/newspaper](http://dreamsofalife.com/home/newspaper)
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### Author:  [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)
#### Post date: [March 8, 2014, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/auto-payments-hide-womans-death-for-six-years/683180/15 "2014-03-08T18:31:25Z")
> [@BrotherCadfael](#):
>
> I can see mowing the neighbor’s lawn once or twice, but for six years? I’d have said the hell with it much sooner.
When we lived in the desert, dad and the guy next door took down the wormwood fence that divided our front yards. When one lawn was mowed, both would be. Either we or our neighbour benefitted from not having to mow a lawn, and the other of us would benefit by not having an overgrown yard uglifying the place.
ISTM that people might see a busy woman who is gone much of the time, and mow her lawn out of neighbourliness. Or they might not have wanted That House – the house with the overgrown yard that makes the neighbourhood look bad – on their block.
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### Author:  [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)
#### Post date: [March 8, 2014, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/auto-payments-hide-womans-death-for-six-years/683180/16 "2014-03-08T18:39:08Z")
> [@USCDiver](#):
>
> I’m impressed she had enough saved to pay all her bills for 6 years!
Remember, she was saving a lot on food and clothes.
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### Author:  [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)
#### Post date: [March 8, 2014, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/auto-payments-hide-womans-death-for-six-years/683180/17 "2014-03-08T18:41:18Z")
> [@Tom\_Tildrum](#):
>
> Remember, she was saving a lot on food and clothes.
Apparently, she had $58,000 in the bank.
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### Author:  [@rocking\_chair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rocking_chair)
#### Post date: [March 8, 2014, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/auto-payments-hide-womans-death-for-six-years/683180/18 "2014-03-08T19:11:23Z")
> [@USCDiver](#):
>
> I’m impressed she had enough saved to pay all her bills for 6 years!
i am as well, that is very impressive. very sad that no one did a check on her.
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### Author:  [@Antinor01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antinor01)
#### Post date: [March 8, 2014, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/auto-payments-hide-womans-death-for-six-years/683180/19 "2014-03-08T19:31:25Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#):
>
> Apparently, she had $58,000 in the bank.
Our basic expenses would burn through that in 2 or so. Maybe a bit longer since things like the electric bill would drop a lot.
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### Author:  [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)
#### Post date: [March 8, 2014, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/auto-payments-hide-womans-death-for-six-years/683180/20 "2014-03-08T20:21:14Z")
> [@rocking\_chair](#):
>
> ivery sad that no one did a check on her.
See [post #5](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=17174394&postcount=5).
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