A grief-stricken mother wheeled the badly decomposed body of her dead daughter around a shopping centre in London because she ‘couldn’t bear to part with her’, an inquest has heard.

Joan Kathleen Turnell, then aged 77, is believed to have kept her daughter Tracey’s dead body at their shared flat in Leyton for 14 months before the grim discovery was made. 

Housing association officers knocked on the door of their home on November 7, 2023, following months of complaints from neighbours about ‘horrendous smells’ and a fly infestation.

But Ms Turnell refused to let them in and instead, in a bid to convince them Tracey was alive, she wrapped up her daughter’s body up in a red coat and took it out for a walk in a wheelchair.

Officers decided to follow her and called police when they noticed a ‘vile smell’. 

Ms Turnell was stopped outside a Peacocks clothing store in Walthamstow and then pushed the wheelchair to a secluded car park. 

It was there that police lifted the hood of the coat and found the gruesome remains of Tracey’s decomposed body. She was in her 50s when she died. 

When Ms Turnell was sectioned under the Mental Health Act she asked: ‘Why can’t they just leave us alone? We have been fine and I have been looking after her.’ 

DC Emma Roberts told East London Coroner’s Court in a statement that the body was very decomposed.

Ms Turnell denied causing her daughter’s death in a heartbreaking statement to the coroner saying: ‘I do not know what caused my daughter’s death.

‘I did not call for an ambulance because I knew that they couldn’t help. I kept Tracey with me because I couldn’t bear to part with her. I loved her too much.’

Ms Turnell was diagnosed with prolonged grief disorder and was found to be suffering from a brain tumour.

Senior Coroner Graeme Irvine told the inquest last week that she had ‘severe’ mental health problems.

‘I found it inhumane to summon Mrs Turnell here today to give live evidence,’ he said. ‘I don’t think the nature and quality of her evidence would have assisted me.’

Mr Irvine also criticised Waltham Forest Council for not heeding previous warnings about the squalid conditions of the pair’s flat and their wellbeing.

He added: ‘[There had been] significant missed opportunities to safeguard this obviously vulnerable young woman.

‘At the risk of descending into hyperbole, the death referral in relation to Tracey Jane Turnell is horrifying.

‘It is a truly, truly appalling case. A horrific case.’

Ms Turnell was never prosecuted for preventing the lawful burial of her daughter’s body.

The court heard Tracey, born in October 1971 at Walthamstow’s Thorpe Coombe Hospital, had attended Highams Park School.

Suffering from a curved spine, a damaged knee and deformed arms, Ms Turnell said her wheelchair-bound daughter had no friends and had never had any romantic partners.

East London Coroner’s court (pictured) was told that Ms Turnell kept her daughter’s body in their shared flat for at least 14 months 

‘It’s clear that her existence was parasitic upon that of her mother,’ said Mr Irvine, describing them as ‘a very internalised, withdrawn family’ who lived ‘off the grid’.

The court heard the pair weren’t registered with GPs, didn’t have government documents and had no internet access.

Tracey didn’t own a phone and police never found a single photograph of her; with her body having to be identified by DNA.

‘I can’t remember an exact date of Tracey’s death but I believe it to be around September of 2022,’ her mother said in her statement.

‘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 body was so decomposed by November 2023 that a pathologist couldn’t identify any cause of death.

‘I haven’t the first clue how Miss Turnell died and therefore will have to leave that as an unascertained conclusion,’ Mr Irvine said.

He recorded an open verdict – but did not hold back in his criticism of Waltham Forest Council, citing repeated ‘missed opportunities’ to intervene.

‘The very tragic and concerning circumstances under which Miss Turnell’s death was discovered have caused me grave concerns,’ Mr Irvine admitted.

He added that the ‘shocking and heart-rending’ case reminded him of the ending of the murder mystery play An Inspector Calls.

‘The responsibility for [a character’s] death is everybody’s,’ he explained.

‘Everybody is guilty. Various members of the cast have interacted with this person and all of them played a contributory effect on the death.

‘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.’

Waltham Forest councillor Louise Mitchell, Cabinet Member for Adults and Health, said: ‘The details at the centre of this tragic incident are extremely saddening. We owe it to Tracey and Joan to ensure the lessons of this case are learned and that we are doing everything within our power to prevent it happening again.

‘The coroner has given us 28 days to consider and respond to his comments. We are currently working on this response.’