Police believe she probably died of natural causes in early 2003, and was only found in January this year when housing association officials broke into the bedsit in Wood Green, North East London.

They were hoping to recover the thousands of pounds of rent arrears that had piled up since her death.

Details of the case emerged during an inquest at Hornsey Coroner's Court, which was attended by relatives including Ms Vincent's sisters.

A spokesman for the coroner said today that Ms Vincent had apparently been a placed in the women's refuge accommodation as a victim of domestic violence.

When representatives from the Metropolitan Housing Trust arrived at the flat on Jan 25 they drilled the door open and discovered stacks of unopened post.

Some mail was marked February 2003, and medication and food had February 2003 expiry dates, the spokesman said.

Ms Vincent was found lying on her back on the floor of the living room, which also doubled as a bedroom.

Dr Simon Poole, a pathologist, told the inquest he had been unable to establish the cause of death because the remains were "largely skeletal", but police do not regard the circumstances as suspicious.

The coroner recorded an open verdict.

Erudite and eternally curious, Melton, 64, is one of the nation's foremost authorities on religion (and vampires too, but more on that later). The research specialist with the department of religious studies at UC Santa Barbara has written 30 books and co-written or edited 17 more, all of which are expansive and eclectic, and weave a colorful and diverse history of the currents of spiritual worship and tensions around the world.

Sauntering through the aisles of his collection of 40,000 volumes, now housed at UC Santa Barbara, he tried to explain his need to classify religions, the myriad ways people recognize a higher power.

"In 1900 there were 330 different religious groups," he said. "Now, there are over 2,000, and I find every one of them incredibly interesting."

Melton speaks sparingly about his personal life, but his rigorously documented books reflect a mind never at rest.

Ask him about, say, the West African evangelical missionary leader Panya Baba, or the satanic imagery in gothic rocker Marilyn Manson's songs, or how Christadelphian revivalists depart from the Protestant mainstream, and he talks a blue streak.

On the Elim Pentecostal Church, Melton enthused: "It's a group that grew out of an independent Pentecostal Bible school in New York. Basically, it started out by training leaders and organizers who went on to pioneer churches from scratch."

His encyclopedias brim with thousands of entries written in a clean, crisp and deceptively simple style. Their prices underline the stature they command as essential reference works in universities, seminary libraries and theological schools.

His 1,250-page, 7-pound Encyclopedia of American Religions sells new for $320.

Browsing through Melton's works leads a reader from one unexpected fact to another:

- With nearly 2 million members, the anti-Catholic Iglesia ni Cristo is one of the largest and most controversial churches in the Philippines. It was founded by Felix Manalo Isugan (1886-1963), who is venerated as the angel from the seventh chapter of the Book of Revelations.

- In 1989, the Indian government issued a commemorative stamp for a scholar and pioneer Pentecostalist named Sarasvati Mary Ramabai.

- Established in London's East End in the late 1800s, the Salvation Army now includes more than 25,600 commissioned officers serving in 190 countries.

"Melton does very good work," said S. Scott Bartchy, director of the Center for the Study of Religion at UCLA. "My sense in reading him is that he has a lot of insight and information, and doesn't belong to anybody. He's independent."

It's not surprising that Melton has been an arbiter in matters of dispute concerning religious groups large and small, mainstream and fringe, old and new, for nearly four decades.

He also has been asked to stand with religions gone bad when they needed a scholar of both God and sin on their side.

In 1995 he joined a controversial delegation of American lawyers and religious leaders that traveled to Tokyo at the expense of some members of Aum Shinrikyo after that group was accused of a sarin nerve gas attack on a subway that killed 12 people.

"I was one of the few American scholars who knew anything about the group," Melton recalled. "So they asked if I could investigate them to prove they had nothing to do with the attack."

Five days later, however, "We concluded that there was a high likelihood that the groups' leaders had done what they were accused of," he said.

Melton's fascination with vampires has landed him on the witness stand.

In 2003, when Sony Pictures was sued for copyright infringement in connection with a movie about a war between vampires and werewolves, the company called Melton.

The plaintiffs asserted that the inter-creature relationships depicted in "Underworld" were their original ideas. Sony countered that movies had long paired vampirism with lycanthropy.

"Most people can't come up with several examples of vampire and werewolf relationships off the tops of their heads," Sony attorney Steve Mick said. "Melton can."

Savoring the memory with a smile, Melton recalled: "The case was settled after I pointed out that the characters in question had been part of American popular culture since the 1950s."

These days, Melton said, he's "on the road about 100 days a year, giving speeches, organizing research projects, meeting with scholars and lawyers. I also do a little lobbying for the 1st Amendment."

His steadfast defense of the right of new religions to express themselves has made him a target of leaders of the anti-cult movement, who regard him as an apologist for extremists.

Melton, however, likes to point out that nearly every religious group in America has, at one time or another, been accused of being cult-like.

Assembling his massive troves of information also has changed his perceptions about the roles and influences of religious movements in society.

"I've come to believe that coercion in matters of religion is self-defeating," said Melton, who is also a Methodist minister. "If you leave people alone, the great majority will find their way to the center of one of the 15 or 16 great religious traditions."

"And the ones on the fringe will not be nearly as violent," he added. "Religious violence usually, but not always, comes from repressing religion."

But why encyclopedias?

Born and raised in Birmingham, Ala., Melton was still in high school when he picked up an unassuming book called "The Small Sects in America."

"I read it in one sitting," he recalled. Then he gave up collecting baseball cards and started gathering data on American religious groups, from mainline traditions to UFO cults and Dracula myths, with plans to rewrite the sects book.

"I spent a decade doing the research for the project, and two years writing it," he said. "It was published in 1979 as the Encyclopedia of American Religions and was an overnight success."

Rodney Stark, professor of social sciences at Baylor University in Texas, still talks about the day he ran across an ad extolling Melton's massive work.

"I turned to my wife and joked, 'If half of what this ad says is true, this would be a marvelous book,' " he recalled. "Then I bought it, and it floored me. I could not believe what he had achieved."

The book described nearly every denomination and the people who made them tick: Protestant groups from Anglican to Pentecostal, Catholicism, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, neo-pagan groups and atheist associations, along with bibliographical references and mailing addresses.

"I quickly arranged to review it for a journal and then contacted Gordon, expecting to meet a frail guy of 80 who'd spent his entire life putting it together," Stark said. "Instead, he turned out to be this young Methodist preacher who'd done the whole thing in his attic."

Melton hasn't changed much since then, except for his white goatee. He still spends most days at a computer terminal beside a pot of coffee and a record player issuing strains of his favorite bluegrass and sentimental Southern gospel tunes.

Later this year, Melton, who witnessed the 1960s civil rights struggles in his hometown, expects to complete his current obsession, a history of African American Methodists.

"There are 4 million African American Methodists in the United States, yet this is virgin territory for a historian," he said. "That's because the whites didn't want to remember the blacks, and the whites were writing the history."

Sometime next year, Melton plans to edit an especially daunting project, even by his standards: a biographical work on the 2,500 most important religious figures of all time.

"It's time for such a book because what we know about these people continues to change," he said. "For example, until just a few years ago, in America, Muhammad wasn't considered a very important guy."

"My wife's been parking there once a week for ages. She goes to visit friends where she worked at GlaxoSmithKline, but today (Thursday, 13 April) her remote key just wouldn't work," he said.

Initial thoughts that the battery on the bleeper had gone proved unfounded when the Fletchers called out a breakdown truck.

"His wouldn't work either," said Terry. "And another person also had the same thing. It's all very strange."

A Mercury reporter went to investigate the strange phenomenon. Sure enough, when he pressed the remote key to his ageing BMW, it failed to elicit a satisfying 'bleep, bleep'. Now the gadget is kaput.

A spokeswoman for the RAC Foundation said: "I've heard of a similar thing happening near the US Air Force base in Yorkshire, which has an extremely powerful radar, but you have to be really close for it to happen. Do you have an air force base in Ware?"

Tamsin Johnston, from RAC Rescue, said: "RAC is aware of a number of loca tions including military bases, hospital car parks and docksides where this phenomenon occurs.

"If a motorist experiences this problem they should open the car manually using the key. Once inside the car, close the door and retry, deactivating the security system by operating the key fob, as the car's bodywork provides a shield to the radio signals.

"If this doesn't work, the car will need to be towed out of the range of the signal to rectify the situation. The interference may only be temporary, so it's worth waiting 10 minutes or so and trying again."

A spokesman for breakdown firm Lantern Recovery, of South Mimms, said: "It can happen near a radio transmitter or a pylon. It's all to do with radio waves. I don't want to scare anyone - there are no health worries."

We discovered that in 1993 a European frequency of 433.92 MHz was allocated for radio car keys by the European Radio Committee. The same frequency was already legally allocated to other users, including the Ministry of Defence.

So it seems that Ware has a hidden air force base, a secret MoD installation or a new hospital that the NHS forgot to mention.

Either that or UFOs have landed in the secluded wood at the bottom of Page Hill.

Occasionally when a reporter from the mainstream press does gather the courage to broach the subject of UFO's, more often then not we see an individual who approaches the subject from the aforementioned education received by his fellow colleagues; that's not to say there haven't been some reporters/newsmen etc., who have done some good publicized research; but those individuals, and instances are few and far in-between!

The "all to common" term, or phrase used by the mainstream reporters, is "UFO believers." Most Americans are familiar with the term, "UFO", and most incorrectly associate the term with extraterrestrial spacecraft and or beings. The term, "UFO" was borne by the Air Force back in 1952, specifically Capt. Edward J. Ruppelt, Chief of the Air Force's Project Blue Book-the government's "public investigating agency" of the UFO phenomenon. In the verbatim it is an acronym for, "Unidentified Flying Objects"; the "key word" being "UNIDENTIFIED."

To associate the verb, "believer" with a "factual thing" i.e., "UFO," is an oxymoron. Say to yourself, "I believe in the Empire State Building," or use the term "The Mount Rushmore believers"-just doesn't make sense does it? Yet the layman who is ignorant of the subject of UFO's, or who's only knowledge on the subject is from the comedic side of the mainstream press might assume there is a debate about the existence of such things, particularly if the individual has never seen one-henceforth we breed more ignorance!

The public as a whole, I'm sure would be quite surprised to learn that the media in the early years of UFOlogy (late '40's and early '50's) did not turn a "blind eye" to this phenomenon-quite the opposite in fact! "Flying Saucer" stories (the term created by a reporter from Oregon in response to Kenneth Arnold's report of his sighting of 9 UFOs in June of '47, describing their flight characteristics) permeated the press-it was headline news in most states across the country. The press was eager to learn and report what these "strange objects" were, flying in our skies.

Ironically it was the press that provoked the "powers-that-be" to become very aggressive in a public anti-UFO campaign. Initially, when the "newly" independent branch of the military, i.e., the Air Force, established "Project Sign," aka, "Project Saucer" (one of the predecessor's to "Blue Book") who's function was "to collect, collate, evaluate and distribute to interested government agencies and contractors all information concerning sightings and phenomena in the atmosphere which can be construed to be of concern to the national security"; there seemed to be a genuine desire to get to the bottom of the UFO phenomenon; however, the evidence towards the end of 1948 was leading to an apparent extraterrestrial explanation, which didn't sit well with the higher-ups, namely "Air Force Chief of Staff General Hoyt S. Vandenburg."

In the beginning of 1949 "Project Sign" was no more, and "Project Grudge" was in its stead. "Grudge" like it's name took to a dim view of UFO reports, and indicated the Air Forces "public shift" in policy to "explain away" reports as natural phenomenon, e.g., planets, meteors or stars; more drastic explanations would include: hallucinations, reflections, birds and even "particles that float in the fluid of the eye that cast shadows on the retina."

When the Air Force couldn't explain away the evidence they in turn would ridicule the witnesses. UFO observers were called hoaxers, fearsome freaks, or people just trying to get media attention.

Capt. Edward Ruppelt in his book, "The Report On Unidentified Flying Objects" referred to the beginning of the "Project Grudge era" as the "Dark Ages," or "as a period of "intellectual stagnation.'" What he didn't realize is that "stagnation" would evolve and continue for decades.

In the beginning of the Air Force's "debunking policy" it used big names like Vandenburg, and LeMay to substantiate and solidify the "natural explanation" of UFO reports; but it didn't stop internally; the Air Weather Service was asked to verify "balloon flights" that must have been confused with UFO's. In regards to astronomical answers, Dr. J. Allen Hynek, head of Ohio State University's Astronomy Department sorted out reports that could be associated with stars, planets, etc.

Although the public and the media didn't swallow the Air Force's policy shift at once, it did sow the seed of doubt. Magazines like "True and Life" from 1949 through 1952 published some ground-shaking revelations on UFOs based on Air Force reports and files; however that rich source of "official unbiased information" was soon to dry up.

By 1952 the Air Force was in "full debunking mode," and that summer would offer a grandiose example of how far the Air Force would go to explain away the Flying Saucer (UFO) Phenomenon.

Common folk (those "mildly" knowledgeable about UFOs) have often said, "If they are from another planet, why don't they just land on the Whitehouse lawn?" Ironically, in July of 1952 they came very close to doing just that!

The headline of the Washington Post's Final Edition of July 28th, 1952 declared, "'Saucer' Out Ran Jet, Pilot Reveals." The article went on to reveal a "secret military investigation" of what were described as "glowing aerial objects" that were appearing on radar screens in the Washington area for the second consecutive week. Pilots sent up by the ADC (Air Defense Command) reported that they were unable to overtake the UFOs that were near Andrews Air Force Base.

The Air Force's official response was that they were investigating the incidents and that it was classified as "secret." They further stated, "we have no evidence they are "flying saucers"; conversely we have no evidence they are not "flying saucers." We don't know what they are."

To be clear, the UFOs were not just "blips on a screen" they were simultaneously witnessed from the ground as well as from the air (radar/visual sightings) by the pilots pursuing them in addition to civilian airline pilots.

In an interview with "The Alexandria Gazette," James Ritchy, an "air traffic controller and radar specialist" for The Washington Air Traffic Control Center said, "These objects were about 30 miles from the airport when we first made contact with them. We spotted 12 objects, and judged that they were moving in a southeasterly direction at a speed of about 40 mph . . .. The Air Force sent some jet planes up to investigate, and we would help 'vector' the pilots toward the objects . . ..

When we 'vector' a plane onto an object, we are in radar contact with both the object and the plane, and also in radio contact with the pilot of the plane. We keep telling the pilot how to turn to approach the object until he makes a sighting. The first jet pilot to go out Saturday night reported that he sighted a steady white light that appeared to be about 10 miles distant. When we tried to draw closer, it just disappeared . . ..

A commercial pilot got much closer to one of the objects, and reported to us that he sighted a yellow light that appeared to turn red and then yellow again. He reported to us that the object appeared to be about two miles away and the flying parallel with him.

Radar confirmed that he was between two and three miles from the object.

A third pilot sighted two bluish lights and later five more white lights. Our radar continued to show unidentified objects through the night, until 6 a.m. the next morning, but the pilots did not get closer to them."

The pursuit planes used were F-94s with a top speed of 600 mph. The targets (UFOs) were tracked at speeds as slow as 90 mph and faster then that of their pursuers. (Substantially faster, as when planes approached in some instances, the UFOs would simply disappear from radar-presumably retreating faster then it took the "radar antenna" to make a full sweep).

As one might imagine, since this was an ongoing phenomenon (for two weeks) and it was taking place near the nation's capitol, it created quite a hubbub! With telegrams, phone calls and letters by the thousands pouring into the Pentagon, as well as pressure from the constituents of local Congressman, and topping it off with a lot of noise from the media; the powers-that-be needed to do something, and quickly! That something ended up initiating "the largest press conference held since the end of the Second World War."

On July 29th at 4:00 pm in the conference room at the Pentagon, Major General John A. Samford, Director of Intelligence of the Air Force proceeded to engage in the one of the largest cover-ups ever perpetrated on the American public! With him in this machination was Major General Roger M. Ramey, Director of Operations, a veteran in confabulating UFO events (a la Roswell), Colonel Donald L. Bower, Technical Analysis Division, ATIC (Air Technical Intelligence Center), Captain Roy L. James, Electronic Branch, ATIC, Captain Edward J. Ruppelt, Aerial Phenomena Branch, (head of Project Blue Book and future author of "The Report On Unidentified Flying Objects) ATIC, and Mr. Burgoyne L. Griffing, Electronics Branch, ATIC.

On the other side of the table were the media's elite, top correspondents from all the major newspapers and national magazines were in attendance; heavy hitters from radio and the new medium, "TV" were also there; in the midst of that crowd was one "Major Donald E. Keyhoe," who had penned, "The Flying Saucers Are Real" and was a considerable thorn in the Air Force's side.

Samford's opening statement recapped the Air Force's investigation of the UFO phenomenon since 1947; he mentioned the Air Force's concern of possible air born menaces to the United States, talked about Project Saucer (Project Sign) and it's current "more improved" organization. He noted the mass amount of reports that have been analyzed, and quickly put them to rest as some easily explainable phenomenon, e.g., our own aircraft, weather aberrations, hoaxes etc.

His oratory was mild mannered and done in an academic fashion; Keyhoe later commented that the "tension in the crowd was eased" by his simple explanations of the UFOs. Samford didn't shy away from the "20%" of the reports that couldn't be "identified," either, and gave the impression that with more data those could be laid to rest as well.

In concluding he made a point that the Air Force's role was to ensure that UFO sightings didn't pose a threat to the United States; he said there was no pattern to indicate there was one.

At this point the rest of the conference would proceed as a Q & A session with the reporters. As would be expected, the reporters began a barrage of some very poignant questions, but Samford held his ground, and calmly gave rational explanations for the previous weeks UFO sightings and consequent "radar tracks."

When asked about "solid returns" Samford talked about "birds and temperature inversions"; when asked about multiple radar units tracking the same objects, "simultaneously" he mentioned the same phenomenon can pass from scope to scope, and indicated that the timing can be off. (I.e., it wasn't simultaneous). When asked about the "expertise" of the radar operators he politely indicated that even the "best can be fooled."

As you can see, no matter the question Samford and or one of his panel had a very "logical explanation" for the recent UFO phenomenon; even when he left room for further investigation he firmly stated, "there is nothing in them that is associated with materials or vehicles or missiles that are directed against the United States."

The conference lasted an hour and twenty minutes, at it's finale the members of the media had a mixed response, some thought that Samford and his group were on the level, others didn't buy it for a moment, but by and large they would "accept the more feasible explanations" and that is what would "go to print."

The following day the "New York Times" published an article entitled, "Air Force Debunks 'Saucers' As Just 'Natural Phenomena.'" The "Herald Tribune" published the same article, and the "Post" headlined an article, "Saucer Blips Over Capitol Laid To Heat." The "AP" ran with "those stories" and premise was spread across the country.

Some might wonder how the press could be so naïve . . . but those were different times, and we were much more trustful of the powers-that-be. Still, after taking in Samford's explanations, it must have given people pause if they had to board an airplane, since their very lives depend upon the air traffic controllers who apparently couldn't tell a plane, or another solid object from a flock of birds and or heat inversions.