Elderly woman lay dead in her apartment for five years before anyone noticed she was missing

An elderly woman lay dead in her flat for up to five years, it was revealed today.

The badly decomposed body of Isabella Purves, who would have been 90 this year, was found by police earlier this week.

Officers forced their way into her flat in the respectable Canonmills area of Edinburgh after a neighbour reported water dripping through the ceiling.

They had to fight their way through piles of unopened mail behind her front door.