Joyce Carol Vincent (1965–2003) was a Londoner, of Caribbean descent, who died in 2003 in her Wood Green, North London bedsit flat. Her body lay undiscovered for approximately three years, despite neighbours noticing the smell of decomposition, which sparked off considerable media coverage, speculation and hand-wringing. A film about Joyce, who is played by Zawe Ashton, Dreams of a Life, written and directed by Carol Morley, will be shown at the 2011 BFI London Film Festival and released on 16 December 2011.[1]
After Morley tracked down and interviewed people who had known her, they described a beautiful, intelligent, socially active woman, an "upwardly mobile, a high flyer", who they assumed "was off somewhere having a better life than they were".[1] During her life she had met figures such as Nelson Mandela, Ben E. King, Gil Scott-Heron, and Betty Wright; and had also been to dinner with Stevie Wonder.[1] One further mystery surrounding her death was how and why she ended up in a shelter in Haringey for victims of domestic violence; she entered the shelter sometime after 2001, when she quit her well-paid job – colleagues were unsure of her reason for leaving her job.[1] She never took drugs and did not have a drinking problem.[1]
Joyce is thought to have died while wrapping Christmas presents in 2003. The specific cause of death is unknown, due to the skeletal nature of the remains, but believed to be from natural causes. The inquest recorded an open verdict.