House seller lay dead as agent showed buyers around

News Category: Industry News

A woman lay dead in the sitting room of her house while an estate agent showed prospective purchasers around.

It happened in Notting Hill, West London, to Marsh & Parsons employee Samuel Allfort. He had assumed that she was asleep on the sofa and continued with the viewing, as arranged.

He left the living room last to view, in the hope that she would awake in time. After bidding the viewers goodbye outside the property, he returned after feeling that something was amiss.

An inquest at Westminster Corononer’s Court heard that he found the seller, Katherine Frame, still motionless on the sofa.

In a statement read to the court, Mr Allfort said: “After finishing the viewing, I went outside with the applicants to say goodbye. I then went back into the property because something didn’t seem right.

“Upon seeing this person again they seemed absolutely motionless and were a yellowish colour. I called an ambulance which arrived almost instantly and the ambulance man soon told me that she had passed away.”

In the tragic case, the court heard that divorcee Miss Frame, 55, had been born in America and was living alone. She had been made redundant two years ago and had decided to sell her £800,000 house because of financial difficulties. She was planning to return to the US. She had been treated for chronic depression for 23 years and had struggled with a drink problem.

Assistant Deputy Coroner Dr Andrew Barton recorded a verdict of death by natural causes exacerbated by chronic excessive alcohol ingestion.

Marsh & Parsons had no comment after the case.


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