Inquest into forgotten Sydney woman to turn 'ugly'

An inquest into the death of a Sydney woman whose corpse lay in her home for eight years will turn "ugly" as relatives come forward to try and claim her estate, a lawyer involved has said.

Police found what was left of Natalie Jean Wood's remains and pink dentures on the floor of her Surry Hills bedroom in July 2011, the Sydney Morning Herald reports.

In the eight years since her death, Ms Wood was not reported missing by her relatives and the City of Sydney Council, Centrelink and even her bank failed to question her absence.

The inquest starts tomorrow and will be followed by her sister-in-law Enid Davis and five of Ms Wood's cousins – all of whom are trying to claim her now derelict two bedroom terrace worth about $800,000 and $79,270 in a Commonwealth Bank account.

"It hasn't got ugly yet but it will," Vasso Tsolakis, Ms Davis' solicitor, said.

A police statement to the coroner suggests Ms Wood died following a fall in her bedroom a month after she was last spotted at a pharmacy on December 30, 2003.

But police say the cause of her death "will be forever undetermined" because of the time it took to find her body.

Ms Wood died just short of her 87th birthday and was a former war bride and David Jones machinist.

Source: Sydney Morning Herald