Croatian woman's dead body in flat remains unnoticed for 35 years

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Apathy seems to be spreading worldwide. Lots of things have happened in Croatia in 35 years: they were under the name Yugoslavia, a war was fought with many lives lost, citizens were displaced but they won in the end and now they are an independent EU country.

The poor Hedviga Golik never had a chance to see this transformation of her country. She died in her tiny apartment in Zagreb, capital of Croatia. No one noticed her absence until now, when a neighbor decided to claim her property as their own. Once they saw the mummified body of Golik, they contacted the local police.

Police told AP that no one reported Golik missing. To add further insult to injury no one is claiming her body.

Autopsy results showed that Golik likely died in 1973. Davor Strinovic, one of the forensic experts, told AP that she may have died of natural causes but is extremely difficult to narrow what caused her death.

One of her neighbors told they last saw Golik in 1973 and that she was planning to go abroad.

When Golik lived in that apartment it belonged to the government. The apartments are usually heavily subsidized by the government, but they may require the tenants to pay for the utilities or a small rental fee. At least someone should have noticed this discrepancy.

The neighbors have moved on from this incident; they are fighting among themselves which of them will take over the apartment.

The local media was very scathing in their reports about how Golik could have been left dead without anyone noticing.

Merita Arslani wrote the following in her Jutranji list daily:

My dear neighbors! Please keep on being curious and a bit tiresome, as you have been so far.

This quote is applicable to the whole world.