An inquest into the death of 41-year-old Laura Winham is currently ongoing at Surrey Coroner’s Court after she was found deceased in her flat on 24 May, 2021. The heartbreaking discovery was made after Ms Winham’s family asked police to perform a welfare check.
It is believed that Ms Winham had been dead for around three years before she was found.
Ms Winham’s exact date of death is not known, however, the court heard that a calendar discovered in her flat had dates crossed off until 1 November, 2017, while diary entries revealed that she was ‘starving’.
Laura Winham was found in her home on 24 May 2021 (PA Media)
“It has been a whole month since my last food shop. I cannot believe I have survived this long,” an entry from October 2017 read, while a heartbreaking entry from 15 September 2017 simply read: “Wish I’d bought rice. Dreaming of (food). Anyway, I’m starving.”
Photographic evidence taken from her flat also revealed a sparsely stocked kitchen with a fridge containing ‘a tub of margarine and tomato sauce’ while her cupboards had only ‘a mixture of herbs, spices, salt and vinegar’.
Bags of loose change consisting of just 1p and 2ps were also found around the flat.
The inquest also heard how Ms Winham’s family were unable to face much contact with her over the years due to her mental health conditions. It’s understood that Ms Winham had requested minimal contact with her family due to a belief in which they would harm her.
She had last had physical contact with her family back in 2009, Ms Winham’s sister Nicola also recalled receiving a message from her in 2014 which asked for ‘minimum/no contact’ with the family.
“We knew that contact with us exacerbated her mental health difficulties,” she added.
.png)
Ms Winham’s flat in Woking, Surrey (Hudgell solicitors)
Susan Harrison, who chaired a safeguarding adults review panel, also testified during the inquest “the family had done absolutely everything they could have done in these circumstances given Laura was so determined to keep them at arm’s length.”
Nicola also told the court how her brother and mother had visited Ms Winham’s flat in Woking due to fears about her welfare and looked through the letterbox after there was no response to their knocks.
“They were shouting her name and looking through the letterbox. My brother saw what he thought was a seriously decomposed body,” she said.
“They called the police and forced entry. Inside they found a mummified and almost skeletal body. Both of them saw this and the shock can never be forgotten.”
If you’re experiencing distressing thoughts and feelings, the Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM) is there to support you. They’re open from 5pm–midnight, 365 days a year. Their national number is 0800 58 58 58 and they also have a webchat service if you’re not comfortable talking on the phone.
.png)
So, you’ve partied a little harder than you expected at a big event and you’re a bit rundown afterwards. Normal, right?
That’s initially what 32-year-old Ricky Duggal believed after experiencing exhaustion symptoms a week on from his cousin’s wedding.
.jpg)
A man who complained about being fatigued ended up being diagnosed with a serious disease (Instagram/rickydentist)
In July 2023, the medical expert complained about back pain and fatigue, causing him to book a life-changing doctor’s appointment.
“I had had back pain before – dentists often get it because of our bad posture whilst working with patients,” Dugga told LeedsLive. “I went to the physio who loosened it all up but it didn’t seem to make much difference.
“I was also waking up with night sweats and I had a purple bruise on my leg.”
Duggal explained his worry intensified when he realised he couldn’t bench what he was used to at the gym.
After noticeably losing strength, pounding headaches began to manifest at the back of his head.
“This was the symptom that worried me the most,” he admitted.
Deciding to take his health into his own hands, Duggal booked in to see his GP within 10 days of exhibiting the strange symptoms.
It’s understood the Leeds native was immediately referred to a local hospital due to worries he was suffering from a bleed on the brain.
Duggal complained that he felt his doctor was ‘overreacting a bit’, causing him to dumb-down his symptoms.
When he got to A&E, he was tested for viral meningitis and had a computed tomography (CT) scan.
“I’m quite a relaxed person and still thought everything would come back fine,” he confessed to the publication.
After completing all the assigned tests, Duggal received results that showed he had a raised white blood cell count – with the doctor’s delivery of the news raising ‘alarm bells’.
Due to the worrying outcome, he was asked to stay overnight in the hospital and gave 12 vials worth of blood to be sampled.
After spending the night in the institution with his wife, Simi, doctors announced he would have to undergo a bone marrow biopsy to ‘rule out anything sinister’.
According to the Cleveland Clinic, a bone marrow biopsy’s purpose is to show whether the cells present are abnormal.
It’s also a way for your healthcare provider to diagnose blood disorders or more serious diseases such as cancer.
Later, Duggal was informed that he had been diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL).
The NHS has chalked ALL up as a rare type of cancer that specifically affects a person’s blood and their bone marrow, too.
While symptoms aren’t always obvious at first, they do resemble those that Duggal exhibited after his family wedding: tiredness, headaches, and pain in the bones or joints.
.jpg)
The dentist was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (Instagram/rickydentist)
More common symptoms of ALL include looking more pale than usual, exhibiting a high temperature, and suffering from swollen glands.
Duggal spent five weeks solid in hospital and chemotherapy within the hour after being diagnosed with ALL diagnosis on 11 August 2023.
Recounting the ordeal, the married man claimed his illness had been a ‘huge shock’ and that he credits his wife and family for seeing him through the tough time.
After being given the green light to leave hospital, he returned home where he allegedly suffered from short breathless and accepting ‘life was not as it was before’.
Soon after the dentist’s completed his first cycle of chemotherapy, doctors announced he was in remission.
Despite tests coming back clear, he has since undergone a second cycle in November, and a third a month later.
After three rounds of ALL treatment, Duggal says his life has changed dramatically.
“I’ve learnt to slow down and create a new routine, going for walks and reading books,” he said.
He added that his 2025 New Year’s Resolution would be to begin maintenance chemo in the summer, which is expected to last around two years.
You can continue to follow Ricky Duggal’s health journey on Instagram, here.
The 26-year-old is said to have suffered the ‘worst death imaginable‘ inside the tourist attraction, situated southwest of Utah Lake and around 55 miles from Salt Lake City, when he fatefully headed inside with his family.
John and three of his relatives had decided to explore the Nutty Putty Cave on 24 November, 2009, just a few days before the Thanksgiving holiday in the US – but sadly, the dad-of-one never made it back out.
The medical student and explorer, who considered himself an experienced caver, is said to have essentially ‘crawled into his own grave‘ when he climbed inside the hydrothermal cave 15 years ago.
John Edward Jones became trapped inside the Nutty Putty Cave. (Family Handout)
Although even Boy Scout troops and college students had been inside the Nutty Putty Cave, it was well known for being extremely narrow with tight twists, turns and crawls, where four separate rescue operations had already taken place.
Despite this, the six foot tall and 200lbs John was keen to travel deep into an extremely tight, but still doable, passageway which had a turnaround at the end, known as ‘The Birth Canal’.
But the young man had unknowingly taken a wrong turn and had mistakenly entered an unmapped passageway – where he ended up getting trapped in an area measuring just 10 inches by 18 inches.
John was stuck upside-down inside the cave, before he went on to endure what YouTuber FatalBreakdown described as ’27-hours of claustrophobic hell’ while his brother Josh helplessly watched on.
He was wedged around 400ft from the cave’s entrance with no way to turn around, while one arm rested above his head and the other dangled down by his side – prompting a huge rescue mission.
Volunteer Susie Motola explained that despite being trapped on a downward angle, John was still quite chipper.
The dad became stuck in a narrow passageway around 400ft from the cave’s entrance. (YouTube/Fascinating Horror)
He told her: “Hi Susie, thanks for coming but I really, really want to get out.”
Moments of utter panic did ensue though, during which John said: “I’m going to die right here. I’m not going to come out of here, am I?”
More than 100 emergency responders were involved in the efforts and they set up a rope-and-pulley system in the hopes of being able to free him from the passageway.
It seemed to be working for a second and the team were able to lift him high enough to make eye contact with the rescuer who was closest to him, who asked how he was doing.
John responded: “It sucks. I’m upside down. I can’t believe I’m upside down. My legs are killing me.”
But suddenly, the pulley system failed under the strain which plunged John back down into the hole and into an even more unfortunate position.
A metal carabiner had slammed into rescuer Ryan Shurtz face and injured him in the chaos – which is what John was more concerned about, even though he was confined inside the Nutty Putty Cave.
The caver passed away after spending 27 hours upside down. (Reddit)
He apparently asked: “Is he OK? I think he’s really hurt bad.”
Another rescuer switched positions with Shurtz, who then realised that John’s breathing had become much more shallow and a lot less frequent as he struggled to hold on any longer after an exhausting 27 hours being stuck upside down.
Ultimately, the responders were unable to reach the dad to free him and he was pronounced dead on 25 November, 2009, after he suffered a cardiac arrest.
It was deemed far to dangerous to try and retrieve his body, prompting the Jones’ family and the landowner to come to an agreement to permanently close the cave with John still inside.
The Nutty Putty Cave became a memorial to Jones, while the entrance hole was filled with concrete to prevent further access – while John’s story lives on as a cautionary tale to cavers around the world.
Patricia Kopta went missing from her neighbourhood of North Hills, Pittsburgh, US on 20 June 1992, and was reported missing by her husband Bob on 27 November 1992.
Bob waited a few months before reporting her disappearance as she was known to wander off for periods of time due to her deteriorating mental health.
Patricia was found in Puerto Rico, 31 years after disappearing. (WPXI)
Patricia, a devout Roman Catholic, was known as a ‘free spirit’, and claimed to have seen the Virgin Mary, while preaching messages related to her religion and telling strangers that we were all going to die in a worldwide nuclear holocaust.
But after police couldn’t find her, she was classified as a ‘critical missing person’, with an urgent search being launched.
At the time, the ‘eccentric’ Patricia was 52 and was said to ‘love the ocean, the beach and the warm sunshine’, enjoying trips to Puerto Rico before marrying Bob, according to information given by her sister Gloria.
She firmly believed that her sister may have fled to start a new life that matched that description, but no-one had any way of knowing as Patricia had gone radio silent, which worried her husband who though she could be ‘laying in a ditch somewhere’.
Bob even paid a psychic to try and find answers and put adverts in Puerto Rican newspapers to try and find his wife, whom he had been married to since 1972, 12 years before a doctor diagnosed her with ‘delusions of grandeur’, with suspicions of schizophrenia.
Bob released an emotional statement after news broke, stood in front of a press conference with Patricia’s sister, Gloria. (WPXI)
Seven years after she vanished, Patricia’s family were given a legal declaration that considered her dead.
Bob later said: “I come home one night, and she’s just gone,”I went through a lot. Every time they’d find a body somewhere [I wondered], ‘Is it Patricia? Is it Patricia?'”
However, in 2023, 31 years after she vanished, Patricia was located in a nursing home in Puerto Rico, after a social worker found out more about the woman and contacted authorities.
When news broke, Bob, who never remarried, spoke at a press-conference, stating: “It’s a sad thing, but it’s a relief off my mind. When your wife goes missing, you’re a suspect.”
The 86-year-old was then asked how he felt about being a suspect for the case, to which he responded: “After 30 years, you try to forget about it.
“Now, I can forget about it. We know what happened, and she is taken care of now. She could have come home any time. But that’s what she wanted. She always said she wanted to go to a warm climate.”
Patricia was wandering aimlessly around the home in 1999, before being taken in, and though she stayed tight-lipped about her past, she began to open up more as she suffered from dementia.
Patricia was last seen by her loved ones in 1992. (WPXI)
A DNA test confirmed that the woman was indeed Patricia, with her sister Gloria also relieved when she found the news out as she flew straight to Puerto Rico to see her long-lost sister.
Gloria told WMTW: “We’re very thankful to know that Patty is alive and well.”
“She’s being well taken care of. We really thought she was dead all those years. It was a very big shock to know that she’s still alive.”
Police suggested that she may have left her husband and country behind after she realised she might be institutionalised due to her mental state.
.png)
Viviane Lira Monte went under the knife on 31 August for a number of surgical procedures, including liposuction, a breast reduction and having the fat that had been extracted pumped back into her backside.
However, she developed a massive infection in her abdomen and spent 22 days in intensive care before dying of heart failure on 26 September.
The 24-year-old had found the plastic surgeon online in the city of Sobral, which is located in the Brazilian state of Ceara, and went in for six cosmetic surgeries in a day.
Police have told local media they’re now investigating her death as ‘suspicious’, while her family said she’d been allowed to leave just 15 hours after her eight-hour surgery session and very quickly started suffering from complications.
Viviane Lira Monte died after 22 days in intensive care after she went in for six cosmetic surgeries in one eight-hour session of surgery. (Newsflash)
Suffering from serious pain, her family took Viviane to an emergency care unit where she was very quickly rushed to hospital and placed in intensive care.
Doctors were able to treat a pulmonary embolism, a life threatening blockage of an artery in the lung, but a massive infection in her abdomen couldn’t be stopped and she died from heart failure.
Her husband Renan Santiago said: “She vomited blood, recovered, but she was never stable.
“There was a lot of inflammation and infection because of the surgery. She couldn’t breathe, but they still managed to reanimate her, and they got her intubated, but she just couldn’t make it back.
“We saw her die little by little. It was 22 days of suffering without good news.
“Every day, she talked to us with a very weak voice and difficulty breathing. She knew she was dying.”
Viviane died of heart failure after 22 days in intensive care, and her husband has blamed the surgeon. (Newsflash)
Her husband has claimed that the cosmetic surgeon who carried out six procedures on Viviane is to blame.
Santiago accused the surgeon of offering his wife a discount if she went in for more procedures, and then insisted on being paid a £42,000 fee in cash.
The widower also alleges that the surgeon said that Viviane being ‘very weak’ was ‘normal’ after the six cosmetic surgeries and his since left town.
“He saw that she was bad but went to Rio de Janeiro. He abandoned her and did not give her support,” Santiago said.
“When I contacted him and said she was serious in the ICU, he said that she was going to be fine, that it was only a matter of time, that it would work out and calmed me down.”
He said that the surgeon only visited her in the ICU a few hours before she died, and her family said it was ‘an injustice that he abandoned her to go travelling‘ when she was unwell.
