Leslie Harvey got the shock of a lifetime while giving his mother’s house a makeover during her hospital stay. The taxi driver, hoping to clean and redecorate his childhood home as a kind gesture, opened a tall cupboard at the top of the stairs—and was horrified to find the mummified remains of a lodger who had been locked inside for around 20 years.
His 65-year-old mother, Sarah Jane Harvey, suddenly came under suspicion as police, forensic teams, pathologists, and the local coroner swarmed their home at 35 West Kinmel Street, Rhyl, North Wales. Leslie, who lived nearby with his wife and son, had long been curious about the nearly seven-foot-tall storage unit, which he had been told contained leftover items from wartime tenants.
The grim discovery revealed the shriveled body of Frances Alice Knight, a former lodger who had rented a room from Mrs. Harvey during World War II. Reports indicated that Mrs. Knight, estranged from her dentist husband, received a weekly allowance and had complained of chronic pain in her later years.
According to Mrs. Harvey, Mrs. Knight died suddenly one night in 1940. Instead of reporting it, she allegedly moved the body into the cupboard and continued to collect her lodger’s weekly allowance, totaling £2,099 over the years. Mrs. Knight’s body remained hidden until Leslie’s discovery decades later.
The cupboard’s warm, confined space had mummified the remains, with the body stiff and dried out. Experts had to soak it in glycerine for a week to perform a post-mortem, which revealed a stocking around the neck, prompting a murder investigation. During trial, Mrs. Harvey claimed the stocking had been used to soothe a sore throat. She was cleared of murder but found guilty of fraudulently obtaining money and sentenced to 15 months in prison.
After serving her sentence, Mrs. Harvey moved to a care home and later died of cancer. The chilling story of the “Mummy in the Cupboard” still fascinates locals and has remained a haunting chapter in Rhyl’s history.
