Daughter is found alive

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A HOARDER has been found dead under a mountain of clutter at her home after lying there for up to four years.

Gaynor Jones was under so much rubbish it took authorities four days to find her remains. But the 87-year-old’s daughter Valerie was found alive during the search in the “bombsite” 19th-Century stone cottage in Aberaeron, Ceredigion. Valerie, in her 50s, was rescued from under mounds of papers and taken to hospital in a “poorly condition”.

Alarm

Neighbours tipped off police when they became concerned about the pair’s welfare. In the hunt for Valerie, search teams found Gaynor’s decomposed remains.

Locals described the pair as “odd” and “reclusive”, explaining they had lived together for “many months or even years”.

One said: “I think the mother was born there herself, so the cottages have been in her family’s hands for about a century. They were well known, not for being seen about, but as the old Welsh family who kept themselves to themselves.

“You certainly wouldn’t pop over for a cup of tea.”

The pair spoke mainly in Welsh and very rarely mixed with their neighbours.

One resident claimed he had not seen either woman for four years.

They added: “They are a well-known Aberaeron family who certainly do not seem to welcome visitors.

“What has happened there is all a bit of a mystery.”

The house was in such a state it was described as “ruined” on history site Welshruins.co.uk in 2016.

A spokesperson for Dyfed-Powys Police said: “The death is currently being treated as unexplained.”