Nobody entered Sheila Seleoane’s flat for years. (Representative Photo)
A woman living below a flat, where the body of a woman was found, has revealed maggots had ‘infested’ her home. The woman, whose name is Chantel as per the BBC, said a pile of maggots fell from the ceiling of her house in south London when she changed a lightbulb. Sheila Seleoane, her upstairs neighbour, died in August 2019 but her skeletal remains were discovered in February 2022, the BBC report further said. Her body was so decomposed that it was not possible to determine her cause of death.
“I’ve got them in the bedroom, the living room, and the bathroom. And more or less all over my furniture,” Ms Chantel said, describing the problem she faced. “You’d sit down on the sofa and after a period of time you’d find a squashed maggot. It was like living in a horror movie.”
Ms Seleoane’s body was discovered by the police after they broke down the door of her home following a complaint by neighbours.
The skeleton was dressed in a blue pyjama and white top. The police found a dessert inside her fridge which had expired two-and-a-half years earlier, believing she died in 2019, as per the BBC report.
The neighbours are angry with the housing association Peabody, saying it did not bother to check the apartment despite multiple alarms raised by people living there.
Ms Chantel told Metro when she complained to Peabody, they said their pest control staff members “don’t deal with maggots”.
Another woman Lyesha said no one came to visit from Peabody despite complaints of a “smell of death”.
“We couldn’t even sleep in the flat. You couldn’t even eat because it was a very, very bad odour,” said Donatus Okeke who lives in the same building.
Peabody’s chief executive Ian McDermott apologised saying that they did not check on Ms Seleoane.
Metro said the residents of the building are considering whether to sue Peabody for compensation.