If it looks dead to you, it probably is!
I have never seen a dried up violet come back to life.

I have never seen one come back either. My mother also said the same thing and she's been keeping them ever since I can remember. Thank you so much, and if anyone else has actually seen one come "Back from the dead" I'd love to hear about it.

Ah, sounds like my MIL. She lives across the country, so I don't see what's going on very often. Out of five, one was still okay, three were dead, and the fifth had root rot to the point of the crown of the plant lifting off like a cap. She had the dead ones in clay pots and continued to water occasionally because she was convinced they were just 'dormant'. She simply could not admit that they had died.
If you 'nick' the stem and see any green, soft tissue, there is a very slim chance that there could be some life there, and it may put out some new growth. After this amount of time, that's not likely, but nick it and see. If the stem is all dried out inside, it's a goner.

Your roomie may just have a hard time admitting that she wasn't able to keep hers alive, especially if the two of you are somewhat competitive.

Barbara

I never give up on a so called dead plant until it shrivels up or rots away to nothing. I personally have revived a couple plants that I thought would be in the garbage can in a couple days but for some reason they had the strength and will to live. One plant was nothing more than a bare stem, no leaves left and no sign of life whatsoever. But after two weeks it showed a little green at the tip of the central stem. Since then the plant has grown and now has almost a dozen leaves on the tall stalk, it is now ready for me to scrape down the stalk and repot is lower in the pot. I will take off as many of the secondary leaves and just leave the crown which has some nice growth.
Fred in NJ

Thank you so much to those of you that responded. Barbara...you may be right. Both of us are very competitive towards the other in passive aggressive ways. So the fact that she won't admit that she killed hers does not surprise me in the least. That however is irrelavent. I have had a variety of other plants that were "dead" with no leaves or stems left at all after I was done clearing away all the dead parts. But with love and attention and a lot of time, I was rewarded with a plant that fully "came back". AV's are different though and seem to be a bit more sensitive. So I imagine that it just couldn't stand the neglect that it was recieving. Had I noticed it before (it was in her room) I would have rescued it, but unfortuneatley it was too late. 4 months later I would assume that she would get the hint, but the thing is still sitting there, ugly and dead.