Spinster slain by slipping suitcases, shock

The Daily Mail today reports the case of Joan Cunnane, whose demise reads like some ghastly kind of Biblical retribution for an addiction to shopping. Perhaps Gordon Brown should take note.

Joan was a spinster who, says The Mail, ‘obsessively hoarded clothes’.

She died after a mountain of suitcases fell on her, burying her alive.

She had so much stuff she was left with only a 2ft-wide path to get around them, and her car and garage were packed with other goods.

The Mail adds: ‘After she was reported missing earlier this week, it took police searching her home two days to sift through her possessions.

Miss Cunnane was eventually found buried under a 3ft pile of cases in a back bedroom where she had apparently gone in search of a favourite item.

Yesterday, neighbours spoke of their shock at the macabre death of Miss Cunnane, a retired BT operator and devout Roman Catholic who attended church services every weekend.

Her closest friend, Roy Moran, 77, said: 'I think it just gave her pleasure to buy things - none of it was really essential. I once asked her how many scarves she had.

She said she thought about 300. I asked her why she needed that many. She said they were all different colours.

'She bought everything. It had been going on over 16 years from when she bought the property.'

Miss Cunnane had enjoyed Christmas dinner with Mr Moran, a retired hospital supplies worker, before returning to her £170,000 bungalow in Heaton Mersey, near Stockport.’

Why on earth do we need to know the value of her property, I wonder?