LONDON, July 29 (RIA Novosti) - A British pensioner, who was found dead under a pile of suitcases filled with goods she had purchased during a 16-year shopping spree, died from natural causes, local media said on Wednesday.
The Stockport Magistrates Court, near Manchester, heard how 77-year-old Joan Cunnane, who had been diagnosed with cancer, collapsed with pneumonia, after which suitcases and boxes of mainly unopened goods fell on top of her.
Her friend, Roy Moran, contacted the police after visiting her home in Heaton Mersey in late December 2008, but it took officers several visits to the pensioner's bungalow before they managed to locate her as her home was filled to the brim with her purchases.
Moran told the court how Cunnane started shopping after being tormented by local youths some 16 years earlier. However, no one was aware of the extent of her obsession as she was a private person and never let people into her home.
"She said it gave her pleasure to buy things. I think she realized it was getting out of control," Moran was cited in the Stockport Express as saying.
In the end it took police and environmental officers two days, a truck and a skip to empty her house.
Coroner John Pollard recorded a verdict of death by natural causes.
"I suspect she has probably collapsed and various items have fallen on her," Pollard said
