Woman found dead in cupboard as police fail to send officers to home

Police control room staff did not send any officers to the home of a woman who was found dead in a cupboard there 12 hours later, a report has found.

A family member contacted Police Scotland around 1:55pm on 8 May last year to report concerns for the woman as she had not seen or heard from for 72 hours.

The family member told them the woman was on the police interim vulnerable person database (VPD).

Despite this, police initially graded her as a low risk missing person, the Police Investigations & Review Commissioner (Pirc) report found. The family member’s call was identified as a Grade 2 call, which requires area control room staff to make every effort to allocate resources within 15 minutes of the call being accepted.

However, there were no officers immediately available as they were already dealing with other priority incidents.

As no resources had been deployed by 5pm on 8 May, a police sergeant went to the address in Musselburgh “on his own initiative”.

He returned at 9pm as he was still concerned for the woman’s welfare after getting no initial reply.

He managed to get in by slipping the lock, but found nothing during a cursory search.

When he returned to the police station he learned the social work department and a family member had provided more information about the woman and the incident was declared a missing person inquiry. Other officers went to the 39-year-old woman’s home where they carried out a search.

Her body was found in a cupboard around 2:30am on 9 May, with the cause of death determined as alcoholic ketoacidosis – a complication of alcohol use and starvation.

The report said: “The only officers to attend, did so unactioned and on their own initiative.”