I live alone and my next visitor isn’t set to see me until Saturday. Since it will be a visitor who will become alerted and wondering as to where I was (as opposed to the type of visitor who would just go “Meh, must just not be home…I’ll try again another time.”), I’d say Saturday would be the soonest I’d be found.
Potentially longest, though? Well, one or another of my family usually visits me once a week, so–if I died right after one of them left–it would be a week before I was found.
And you? What’s the longest you’d remain unfound if you dropped dead right then and there at the computer? I’m guessing for most “longest time” would be, at most, a few hours.
I live alone, but have a cleaning lady and a gardener (both weekly.)
So it could be several days.
Sadly this has happened to me from the opposite perspective.
I once had a friend who lived alone and was in poor health. I contacted him a couple of times a week (either phone or e-mail.)
When he stopped replying, I phoned the local police (he lived over 100 miles away from me.)
They agreed to inspect the house. Since there were bad signs (e.g. post piling up), they broke in and found my friend had died in his sleep.
DH is on the couch right next to me, so even if he’s really engrossed in his show, I would think not more than 15 minutes or so, when the next commercial break rolls around.
I used to live alone and stay in 90% of the time. It could be weeks before they think about looking for me.
Currently I’m sharing and have no pressing obligations (unemployed), but still keep to my room the majority of the time. They’d probably wonder about my absence a couple of days in, and maybe check further a day or so after that. Hard to say, really.
I live alone, and am not expected anywhere until long after the aroma of decomposition would annoy the neighbours (in this weather I’m guessing that’s a week or so). I moved recently, and my new neighbour is more likely to notice I’ve not been around than the previous neighbour (indeed, this one likes to tell me that he hasn’t seen me for a couple of days if I’ve been away for a couple of days…)
Some friends and relatives might notice that I’m less communicative than usual within that time frame, but I don’t think anyone would be concerned enough to alert the police before the stench alerted my neighbour.
I’m sat in front of a window, so perhaps he’s nosy enough to have a squint through it sooner than that. I’m also in the garden more often at this time of year - dropping dead out there would be more noticeable.
In 2003, Joyce Vincent died alone in a bedsit in London and was not found for 3 years. There is a very moving documentary about her death, and her life - a journalist set out to find out who she was and how it could happen that nobody noticed the death of a vibrant, attractive young woman. There are interviews with ex-colleagues, friends and, most touchingly, an ex-boyfriend who is clearly still a little in love with her.
There was also a strangely beautiful ‘game’ based on the film (the site appears to be down now but there is information from the designer here).
My husband just left for work, but he’ll be back in 9 or 10 hours, depending on whether he gets dragged into a late meeting. I’m pretty sure the dog and the cats wouldn’t eat me before he got home…
Because I’m supposed to work today, there’d be people worrying by noon.
Now, if something happened on, say, Friday shortly after work, often the soonest it would be is Monday noonish - my mother would call Sunday evening and leave a message, but she wouldn’t worry about not hearing back from me until around Monday evening. Work would notice that I wasn’t there/hadn’t emailed out sick sooner.
Like many, I am at work in a large office, so it would be as soon as someone walked by my cubicle.
I live alone, so like another poster mentioned above, if I died on Friday afternoon after work, it is a good possibility that I wouldn’t be discovered until the following Monday.
I do think about this when I retire next year, since I don’t entertain much and family doesn’t call often, it could be days if not weeks before I’m found.
My mother sends me a “Are you OK?” message every couple of weeks if she hasn’t heard from me. She’s said that if she doesn’t hear back within a day or two that she would call the cops to do a welfare check. So sixteen days or so, max, unless the smell of my rotting body got into the hallway of my apartment building earlier.
At home and work I have a number of people that either need me otr that I interact with frequently, so at most perhaps an hour or two.
Now years ago when I was single and did my own thing, often vacationing on long trips or out in the wilderness, there could have been times that it would have taken a month or two and possibly involved a coordinated ER search.
