Woman shopped until she dropped

An elderly shopaholic was buried alive in her home after a 16-year pile of unopened purchases collapsed on her.

Joan Cunnane, 77, was crushed under 3ft of ornaments, clothes in suitcases and electrical goods, still in their untouched packaging.



The churchgoing spinster had stacked her shopping in huge precarious piles, leaving her just a 2ft-wide path to negotiate her tiny bungalow.

Twelve police with sniffer dogs took nearly two days to unload her hoard into a giant skip and find her body.