Man lived with dead wife for months
A pensioner who kept his wife’s body at their home for months after she died may have been too grief-stricken to report her death, neighbours said today.
Pensioner Howard Lewis told friends and neighbours who inquired after his wife Elizabeth that she was fine.
Friends who had not seen her for some time assumed that she had not been well.
But eventually a concerned neighbour contacted the police, who discovered the 79-year-old’s body at the couple’s home in south Wales.
Mr Lewis, 68, was questioned by police after the find on Friday but has since been released on bail.
A police spokesman said officers were conducting a full investigation and awaiting the results of a post-mortem examination.
Pontypridd coroner Stuart Griffiths said: “She appears to have died some months previously and her husband failed to notify anyone.
“One has to keep an open mind.”
Friend Glyn Hooper, who lives near the couple, said Mr Lewis must have been “in denial".
“I can only think that she died on him unexpectedly and he went into denial,” he said.
“We should have all have thought about reporting it because she hadn’t been seen.
“She used to work in the local bingo hall so a lot of people knew her. She was a lovely woman.
“They were an ideal couple really.”
