Lonely Deaths in Berlin: Police and Forensic Experts Regularly Discover Decomposed, Mummified, or Skeletal Remains

Kokcha News Agency: According to *Tagesspiegel*, in Berlin, police and forensic experts are almost daily confronted with decomposed, mummified, or skeletal remains in apartments. These individuals often die in complete isolation, unnoticed by neighbors or relatives, and it can take weeks, months, or even years for their bodies to be discovered.

For example, the body of a 48-year-old woman in Berlin’s Tempelhof district was found after two years. No one had checked on her during that time. Her body was discovered in the bathroom. In another case, in December 2018, a real estate company preparing to vacate an apartment in the Marzahn district found the decomposing body of a tenant in the kitchen. It is estimated that he had died in 2014.

What happens to a body after death can be gruesome. Depending on temperature and conditions, the body may change. In cases where the body is in a cool, dry place, it may mummify instead of decomposing, as the water in the body evaporates. In this state, the body is less likely to be attacked by insects.

Philipp Müller, a 36-year-old forensic expert in Berlin, says, “We have such cases almost every day.” He has been working at the Institute of Forensic Medicine for over 10 years and has seen the grim face of loneliness in big cities through these cases.

Approximately 38,000 people die in Berlin each year, with around 2,400 cases requiring autopsies. Only 5% of these cases are homicides, with the rest mostly resulting from accidents, addiction, or other causes.

More than half of Berliners are single. According to the Federal Statistical Office, around 1.2 million adults in Berlin are single, and this number is increasing. Thirty percent are married, and 5% are divorced. Most single people live in the Pankow and Mitte districts, while Spandau has the lowest number of singles.