The bodies of an elderly woman and her son were discovered badly decomposed at their home near Cheltenham, after neighbours who had not seen them for some time notified police, an inquest has heard.
Mary Lawrence, 92, and her son Alan Lawrence, 60, were found at their house at East Gable, Woodmancote, on October 4 after a neighbour looked through a window and saw what she thought was a body, the Gloucester inquest was told.
The neighbours, Vera Telford and Kelvin Waller, immediately called the police and ambulance service and the bodies of mother and son were found inside.
Alan was lying on his back under a duvet in the lounge. There was an old letter addressed to his mother on top of his bedding, the inquest heard.
He was pronounced dead at 4.51pm. But the inquest was told it was clear he had died many months before as his body had a maggot infestation.
His mother was located in her son's bedroom. She was completed undressed and was lying on the floor in a foetal position. She was pronounced dead at 4.55pm although her body was also infested with maggots to the same extent as her son's.
Physical identification of the mother and son was not possible, due to the amount of decomposition that had taken place.
However, identification was made by consulting the official records of the property's occupants, which were recorded as being Mary and Alan Lawrence, and all the documentation found in the property was connected only to them.
The inquest was told that, circumstantially, the deceased was not likely to be anybody else.
Alan's medical records showed that he had been diagnosed with a number of medical conditions and that he had a stoma (a surgically created opening for a colostomy bag), which could be seen in photographs taken by the police on the right side of his stomach.
Alan had previously been advised that he needed to take insulin, but he had not turned up for any appointments with his surgery. He had been warned that if he didn't take the medication, it would ultimately lead to kidney failure, the coroner heard.
Mary's medical records showed that she had been diagnosed with hypertension, skin lesions, and severe dementia. The inquest heard that she had been found wandering around her home address in a confused state in November 2019.
Mary's records also document that she did not have the capacity to care for herself and that she had refused to have any carers attend to her because it was presumed that her son was her main carer.
The pair also refused to pay for any additional carers to help them at home.
A search of the property, which was described as "extremely dirty" due to large amounts of dog hair throughout the house, was made by the police, who found no evidence of any disturbance.
Due to both parties being in different rooms, officers were unable to establish how long the pair had been deceased or who had died first.
Sgt Alexander Pockett of Gloucestershire Police said that, taking into account Alan's medical history, the police were of the opinion that both parties had died from medical episodes or natural causes, and that there was no third-party involvement.
Sgt Pockett said: "This rules out the three other hypotheses, namely that one party killed the other and took their own life; that one or both were killed by a third party, or that both parties committed suicide.
"It's most likely that Alan passed away first and was covered up with a duvet by his mother. Due to Mary's severe dementia and incapacity to care for herself, she could have passed away after her son. Her death could have been exacerbated by Alan's death."
Post-mortems were carried out on the remains of both bodies by pathologist Dr Terence Jones, who said that both of them had shown heavy maggot infestation with extensive skeletonisation.
He stated that a standard post-mortem was not possible and therefore the causes of their deaths could not be identified.
Dr Jones said that the cause of death would be recorded as 'unascertained' in both cases due to the decomposition of the bodies.
As part of the wider investigation, numerous witnesses were spoken to by the police who said that Mary and Alan had been very private people.
Sgt Pockett said: "Nobody had raised any concerns about the pair or made any suggestion that their deaths could have been caused by a third party. The police also concluded that there was no indication of any domestic violence."
The police said it understands that Alan had two children by an ex-wife.
Roland Wooderson, the assistant coroner for Gloucestershire, recorded a narrative conclusion, saying "Both Mary and Alan Lawrence died on October 4, 2022 having been found at their home address in Woodmancote in Cheltenham.
"They were mother and son, and both bodies were severely decomposed."
