Vilvoorde
A 66-year-old man was found dead last weekend in an apartment on Maria-Theresialaan in Vilvoorde. He had been dead for two or three weeks.
It was neighbors of the Tybeert apartment building who made the report on Saturday, possibly because there was odor nuisance. The emergency services arrived on the scene, but could only confirm that the man had died. The fire brigade removed the body, which was already decomposed.
“The medical examiner was on site at the request of the public prosecutor’s office, it was apparently clear that it was a natural death,” responds Mayor Hans Bonte (Vooruit). “It concerns a lonely person with clear health problems. It’s incredibly sad when you have to leave the world like that… You hear stories like this regularly in big cities, where people remain anonymous even though they live close together in a residential block. But as far as I know, it is the first time that we have experienced something like this in Vilvoorde. It is a painful confrontation with the anonymity and loneliness in our society. It once again points out the importance of having an eye and ear for the people in the immediate neighborhood.”
However, the city is alert to seniors who are in danger of languishing alone. “We actually employ someone who responds to all kinds of signals from older people who are alone and lonely.”
The body was released and collected by a funeral director. “If that person has no means and there is no family that is liable for support, there is an arrangement with the funeral directors that they bury him or her at the expense of the city. A destitute funeral, actually. Unfortunately, we experience this regularly, especially among people who live alone and are very needy. I have no idea whether it will happen this way here.”
