Hedviga Golik from Zagreb in Croatia had sat down to watch her favourite TV show with a cup of tea. Sadly, she died in her chair before she even took a sip.

Several of her friends who reported her missing assumed she had moved away. Her apartment, strangely, was never checked and so a missing persons investigation was filed but the mystery went unsolved until last week when Police broke through the door to check who owned the property.

A police spokesman said: "When officers went there, they said it was like stepping into a place frozen in time. The cup she had been drinking tea from was still on a table next to the chair she had been sitting in and the house was full of things no one had seen for over 40 years. Nothing had been disturbed for decades, even though there were more than a few cobwebs in there."

The site has been declared a place of National interest and the Museum of Croatian History are to replicate the apartment in a wing in the Museum using all it’s original contents which will be preserved and maintained for everyone to see.

“The items and artefacts found in the property have all been beautifully preserved” said museum curator Hanz Zeflemann. “The apartment was full of some of the most intriguing items that she had collected over the years – all untouched for a further 42 years, it’s incredible”.

The authorities were thought to be trying to trace any known relatives of the woman however none have come forward. A substantial find was declared in the apartment but no details have been released as yet.

A spokesman said yesterday that if no one came forward that all the contents and possessions would be stored and finally put on show as National artefacts.