Joyce had died in December 2003, according to forensic estimates, without her disappearance disrupting the city's rhythm. Why did no one notice? After analyzing the reasons for this prolonged silence, all indications are that it was due to a chain of omissions. Moreover, the place seemed intact, frozen in a routine that no one interrupted. In the armchair, facing a television that had remained on for years, lay the body of a woman reduced to bones, who had been dead for over two years. A woman named Joyce Carol Vincent has gone viral in the saddest possible way, after being found dead in her apartment, but the most terrible thing is that no one noticed her death had occurred about two years earlier. According to police reports, when they entered the apartment, no signs of a struggle or disorder were found. Everything indicated a natural death that went unnoticed. Who was the victim? Joyce Carol Vincent was a woman who was 38 years old when she died. She was born in London in 1965 to Caribbean migrant parents, and her childhood was marked by her mother's early death. She left school at 16 but managed to enter the workforce and for a time worked at a renowned financial firm. In life, she was described as charismatic, ambitious, and socially active. She was even linked to high-profile musical and cultural events in the nineties. Around her were carefully wrapped Christmas gifts that never reached their destination. The terrible discovery occurred on January 25, 2006, in Wood Green, north London, during an eviction procedure for accumulated debt. Apparently, no one went looking for her, no one reported her absence, and no one asked about her. But something began to break down because in 2001 she left her job and began a process of isolation from which there were few records. She distanced herself from her family without an explicit break. First, the rent and utilities were paid automatically through a state subsidy, which maintained the illusion of an inhabited home. She worked in precarious jobs and reduced her circle until she disappeared from the radar of those who once knew her. Her sisters tried to find her, hired a private detective, and sent letters that were never answered. She passed through shelters for domestic violence victims and ended up living alone in a supported housing complex. She was dead in her chair for two years; no one noticed or helped. This silence was interpreted as a decision not to disturb her. Joyce's death left many questions, from the possible causes that led to it, the Christmas gifts prepared for someone who never received them, and her daily life. What the case of Joyce Carol Vincent did expose was the harsh, uncomfortable reality of modern large cities: the possibility of disappearing without a trace. Not through violence, but through the indifference of a society that doesn't care if something could happen to an ordinary citizen.
