Estate agent showed buyers round house where owner was dead on sofa

An estate agent showed prospective buyers round an £800,000 house while the owner lay dead on her sofa, an inquest heard. Samuel Allfort said he assumed the 55-year-old woman was sleeping when he carried out the viewing at her home in Notting Hill, west London. The estate-agent showed the would-be buyers round every room in the house but left the living room until last in the hope that Katherine Frame would wake up. After waving goodbye to the visitors, the Marsh and Parsons employee went back into the living room because he suspected that "something wasn't right", Westminster Coroners' Court heard.

He found the homeowner totally motionless on the sofa and saw that she had turned a "yellow-ish" colour, the court heard. In a statement read to the court, Mr Allfort said: "Marsh and Parsons were instructed by Katherine Frame to sell her property for her. I had an appointment to view the property at 4pm on Tuesday June 29, and I did the viewing as scheduled. Whilst doing the viewing I decided the leave the living room until last as it looked like someone was asleep on the sofa.



"After finishing the viewing I went outside with the applicants to say goodbye. I then went back into the property because something didn't seem right. Upon seeing this person again they seemed absolutely motionless and were a yellow-ish colour. I called an ambulance which arrived almost instantly, and the ambulance man soon told me that she had passed away." Miss Frame was born in New Orleans in America, and had lived alone since divorcing her husband, the court heard. She had decided to sell her Kensington house because of financial difficulties and was planning on returning to the USA.

Although Miss Frame had struggled for years with alcohol trouble a post-mortem revealed that there was no drink in her system when she died. However, the examination revealed her liver was severely damaged, and pathologist Dr Peter Wilkins provided evidence to the court claiming this was the "most significant" pathological factor he found. Recording his verdict, Assistant Deputy Coroner Dr Andrew Barton said: 'On Tuesday June 29, 2010 she was found to be lying dead at her home on the sofa in Treadgold Street in Kensington. “I conclude that this was natural causes exacerbated by chronic excessive alcohol ingestion.”