The husband of the woman found in a decomposed state on Monday told neighbours she was “fine” when they asked about her some three weeks ago.
Neighbours of the British couple living in St Paul’s Bay, who spoke to the Times of Malta on Tuesday, described how they had last met the woman’s husband some three weeks ago and as they had not seen or spoken to the wife in some weeks, they asked him how she was doing.
“I saw him walk past some three weeks ago and I asked him about her because we hadn’t seen her in weeks. He said she was “all right” and continued on his way,” one neighbour, the owner of a clothes’ shop across the street from the couple’s house, said.
The shop owner said that she only learnt that her 69-year-old neighbour had died after news of her death started making headlines on Monday evening. She had not seen, heard or smelt anything that suggested the Briton had been dead for months.
“The windows and doors of the home were always shut so we never heard or saw anything. We knew that the woman had been to hospital some time ago, but that’s it. Their pets, cats and dogs I believe, didn’t even make any strange sounds, as one would expect,” the woman said.
The neighbours described the 69-year-old as a quiet but educated woman who, while not one to spend her days chatting away with those who lived nearby, would always smile and exchange pleasantries with those she met on the quiet St Paul’s Bay street.
Various neighbours also described how up in the past, the woman would often be seen walking to the pubs in the area with her husband in the evenings.
On whether the pair ever had any visitors, the neighbours said they never saw anyone walking in or out of the house, pointing out that there had been one occasion last year when a relative had stayed with the couple for some days.
Police called at the two-storey home on Monday after a relative contacted the British High Commission to say that he had been trying to speak to her without success for months. The High Commission then alerted the police.
According to reports, the woman was found on her bed, with her widower keeping the body at home because he did not want to be parted from her.