shouldn't police check a missing person's home to look for them?

Woman found after 42 years
Article from: The Daily Telegraph
May 16, 2008 12:00am

POLICE broke into a flat to check who lived there 42 years after its owner was reported missing - and found the mummified remains of the woman sitting in front of her TV.

Croatian police say Hedviga Golik, who was born in 1924, had apparently made herself a cuppa and sat down to watch her black-and-white television before she died.

Officers believe that would have been in 1966, when she was last seen by neighbours. They said one day she seemed to have just disappeared and they thought she had moved to the capital Zagreb.

But they found her remains in the tiny 13sq m flat after breaking in with bailiffs.

A police spokesman said: "So far we have no idea how it is possible that someone officially reported missing so long ago was not found before in the same apartment she used to live in."

so what about taxes and rent....and no one wanted to purchase the property in all those years? no family? there has to be more to this story

Yea, there must be more to it, its not like no one would have gone to the house, for one reason or another. Even if it was family or police to get belongings or some sort of clues to find the missing person. Then again, I don't know how the system works in Croatia.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Pull~My~Hair

....and no one wanted to purchase the property in all those years?

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would you really want to purchase or rent a place that had a desiccated or decaying corpse in it? wait, don't answer that....im sure someone would find that as being a key selling point.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Pull~My~Hair

so what about taxes and rent....and no one wanted to purchase the property in all those years? no family? there has to be more to this story

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I thought of the rent thing at least.
That's definitely an interesting, and horrible oversight of all kinds.