rpg_wodehouse

I'll have to think about that first question, but in terms of things people should be recognised for, there was one case where someone has written an entire novel. It was typed on a typewriter, and the manuscript was bound together, but it didn't look like it had even been read by anyone. It was several hundred pages long, and when I glanced at different parts it was a proper story with punctuation, grammar, sentences, not just the ravings of a madman. I kept it for ages but it had to be destroyed in the end, there was nothing anyone could do with it.

I had another case where someone had redecorated their home to look like they were in the jungle. He had painted parrots and other animals on the walls, and the quality of the painting was so good, they looked real. I was probably the first other person to see the pictures other than the man who painted them. It seemed like his talent should have been more public.

It will depend on the circumstances. If telling someone will help locate family then I will tell people, but generally speaking you have to be very discreet. I've encountered quite a few men who were presumably gay based on their porn collections, but whose friends thought were straight. No point in outing them after death if that wasn't what they wanted.

There are so many sad stories, I can't say any one of them is the saddest, but one that occurs to me now is from my very first case. It was a man in his 50s/60s IIRC, lived in complete squalor and had been dead for a week or two before he was found (the neighbours noticed a smell...). We knew that he had a mother from a friend of the deceased, but they were estranged, and she was probably dead anyway. When I visit a property I will always look through their unopened mail, and on this occasion I found an unopened letter from the man's mum. It was several pages long and she wrote about her sadness that they had lost touch, that she was sorry for everything that had gone one, that all she wanted to do was reunite with her son before she died. She had got his address though someone she knew who still lived in the area, I believe. She said she thought of him every day. And that letter was on the doormat, unopened, the man had died before being able to open it. That was heartbreaking. And as it was my first case I was completely unsure of this was something I could do. And then you get used to it, I guess.

The 'detective' element of the work is the most fun, although it usually only extends to searching through address books/mobile phones, putting out ads in newspapers, or speaking to neighbours/friends of the deceased. I've already mentioned the case with the school photo in another thread, that was pretty satisfying. There was another case there we knew there were family abroad, but attempts by both the UK police and the police in the country the family were believed to be located were unsuccessful. I eventually came into contact with lots of paperwork the deceased had, and on the back of a scrap of paper, in box full of other papers I found an email address. I sent an email and it turned out to be for the brother of the deceased. He wasn't able to travel for the funeral but a few months later he came to England to collect the ashes and returned them to the native home of the deceased. Another case of the best possible outcome, given the circumstances.

And the most mysterious has to be the man that lived under his brother's assumed identity. I've covered that in a different post, so I won't repeat it here, but that was a case that probably only come up once in two decades.

I fell into it by chance, happened to get a job as a temp in the office where the work is done, and the person who did it before me was shortly due to retire. I applied for the job when he left and have been doing it ever since (5 years).

I kept it in the safe at work, along with huge amounts of other belongings that come into my possession. Because of the limited space, we have to destroy items which aren't collected after 12 months. Some things are left for longer because I can't bring myself to destroy them, but eventually it has to happen.