Joyce Vincent

Joyce Carol Vincent
Studio photograph of Joyce Vincent
Born	(1965-10-19)19 October 1965 Hammersmith, London, England
Died	December 2003 (aged 38) Wood Green, London, England
Body discovered	25 January 2006

Joyce Carol Vincent (15 October 1965 – c. December 2003) was a British woman whose death went unnoticed for more than two years as her corpse lay undiscovered in her London bedsit. Prior to her death, Vincent had cut off nearly all contact with those who knew her. She resigned from her job in 2001, and moved into a shelter for victims of domestic abuse. Around the same time, she began to reduce contact with friends and family. She died in her bedsit around December 2003 with neither family, co-workers, nor neighbours taking notice. Her remains were discovered on January 25, 2006, with the cause of death believed to be either an asthma attack or complications from a recent peptic ulcer.

Her life and death were the topic of Dreams of a Life, a 2011 drama-documentary film. The film and Vincent's life inspired the album Hand. Cannot. Erase. by musician Steven Wilson.

Joyce Vincent was born in Hammersmith on 19 October 1965 and raised near Fulham Palace Road. Her parents had immigrated to London from the island country of Grenada; her father Lawrence was a carpenter of African descent and her mother Lyris was of Indian descent. Following an operation, her mother died when Vincent was eleven, and her four older sisters took responsibility for her upbringing. She had a strained relationship with her emotionally distant father, who she claimed had died in 2001 (he lived until 2004). She attended Melcombe Primary School and Fulham Gilliatt School for Girls, and left school at age sixteen with no qualifications.

In 1985, Vincent began working as a secretary at OCL in the City of London. She then worked at and Law Debenture before joining Ernst & Young. She worked in the treasury department of Ernst & Young for four years, but resigned in March 2001 for unknown reasons. Shortly afterwards, Vincent spent some time in a domestic abuse shelter in Haringey and worked as a cleaner in a budget hotel. During this period, she became estranged from her family. A source involved in the investigation said: "She detached herself from her family but there was no bust up. They are a really nice family. We understand she was in a relationship and there was a history of domestic violence." It has been speculated that she was ashamed to be a victim of domestic abuse or did not want to be traced by her abuser.