Warning: This article contains graphic description and discussion of grief and mental health which some readers may find distressing.
A coroner has spoken out about 'significant missed opportunities' to 'safeguard' an elderly woman who was found pushing her dead daughter around in a wheelchair.
On November 7, 2023, police were called to a shopping center along Walthamstow High Street in London, UK over reports of Joan Kathleen Turnell, 77, pushing her deceased daughter, Tracey, round in a wheelchair.
In August 2022, a gas contractor contacted the housing association after visiting Turnell's home out of concern for the elderly woman.
Police were called to Walthamstow High Street (Google Maps)
A referral to the council was later made, however, senior east London coroner Graeme Irvine said 'what happened after' that was 'effectively nothing,' as quoted by Guardian Series.
"The response in that situation, from us, was not sufficient," he added.
On January 28, 2025, an inquest saw accounts from neighbors who'd also contacted authorities in concern about 'horrendous smells' and a fly infestation coming from Turnell's home.
In November last year, housing officers reportedly knocked on her door, but Turnell refused to let them in and later allegedly wrapped up Tracey in a red coat and took her out in a wheelchair.
However, the 'vile smell' coming from the chair sparked the housing officers to call police and when authorities found Turnell on the high street, they found her daughter's body was 'heavily decomposed', Irvine told the court.
The mom was found pushing her daughter round in a wheelchair (Getty Stock Images)
Turnell's statement, which was read to the court, said: "I can’t remember an exact date of Tracey’s death but I believe it to be around September of 2022. Me and Tracey were watching a film in the afternoon.
"After the film finished, I tried speaking to her and there wasn’t any reply. I got up from my chair and approached Tracey. Her eyes were fixed and dilated."
The mother stated she 'did not cause' Tracey's death but doesn't know what did - with Irvine also stating during the inquest the body was so decomposed he doesn't 'have the first clue how' she passed away either.
Turnell said she 'did not call for an ambulance because [she] knew that they couldn't help', adding: "I kept Tracey with me because I couldn’t bear to part with her. I loved her too much."
Turnell was diagnosed with prolonged grief disorder, as well as a brain tumour, and sectioned under the Mental Health Act. She was also not prosecuted for attempting to prevent her daughter's burial.
A coroner has 'grave concerns' about the circumstances surrounding Turnell's daughter's passing (Google Maps)
Irvine has since spoken out about his 'grave concerns' surrounding the 'very tragic and concerning circumstances under which Miss Turnell’s death was discovered'.
The coroner said: "The responsibility for her death is everybody’s. Everybody is guilty. [...] At the risk of sounding overly dramatic, this is a death in which I reflected on that because it seems to me there were multi-factorial issues on various aspects of society that meant if something different had been done earlier, this tragic set of circumstances may have been avoided."
UNILAD has contacted Waltham Forest Council for comment.
If you have experienced a bereavement and would like to speak with someone in confidence, contact GrieveWell on (734) 975-0238, or email [email protected].
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