An elderly grieving widow slept next to her husband’s decaying corpse for almost a year after his death.
The dead man's 69-year-old wife, who hasn't been named, was left so devastated when he died she was unable to report it.
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A 79-year-old man identified only as Marcel H, is thought to have died of an Asthma attack in November last year, but his mummified remains lay in a Brussels apartment where his devoted wife continued to sleep despite the smell and decomposition, unable to let him go.
Neighbours failed to spot the smell of the decomposing body and the authorities in Belgium only became suspicious after the landlord claimed the couple had not paid their rent since 2012 and alerted the authorities.
When they entered the apartment they made the gruesome find.
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Philippe Boxho, pathologist at the Forensic Centre of Liege told The New York Daily News that the conditions in the apartment would have been horrendous as the corpse mummified.
"A body can mummify in a dry, warm environment. It takes at least a week to reach such a state," he said.
"This liquid would have spread and the bed would have been swarming with insects as the body rotted, this would have been a real shame.
"Even though the smell of human decay is quite specific, many people equate that smell to the smell of garbage and once the body has become rotten the smell does decrease significantly."