A British tourist couple died while on holiday in Egypt shortly after becoming “sick” in their hotel room. As British media reported on Friday, the coroner ruled that they died “as a result of inhaling insecticide fumes.”
John Cooper, 69, and his 63-year-old wife, Susan Cooper, died in August 2018, shortly after becoming “ill” while on holiday in Hurghada in Egypt. In the same year, the Egyptian prosecutor’s office reported that Cooper suffered from bacillary dysentery, an infectious intestinal disease, and his wife was diagnosed with a similar infection. “Their daughter Kelly never believed this theory and waited five years for the investigation to begin,” ITV News noted earlier this week. In turn, the Independent reported that tourists died “in mysterious circumstances”.
The couple died while on vacation. Coroner on the cause of death
After three days of hearings at Blackburn Coroner’s Court, Dr. James Adeley, senior coroner for Lancashire, ruled that the Coopers’ cause of death was poisoning “due to inhalation of insecticide fumes,” the Independent reported on Friday. Adeley added that the couple’s deaths “happened quickly.”
A pesticide containing a chemical that could be fatal if inhaled was to be distributed in a room adjacent to the room where the Coopers were staying. Shortly before the death of the British couple, the mother-in-law of Dominik Bibi, a tourist from… German, whose statement was read in court on Tuesday. “When entering (the room – ed.) I immediately felt a strange smell, reminiscent of mold or damp,” Bibi said in a statement, adding that “there were a lot of bedbugs in and under the bed.” According to the man, his mother-in-law moved to another room. A few hours later, he noticed three men outside the room, including “two in hotel uniforms and one with a pesticide canister.” After “five or 10 minutes, the men came out of the room and taped the door and sealed the room,” Bibi said in a statement. “I wouldn’t say it was a very professional job,” he emphasized.
The couple spent their holidays with their daughter and grandchildren
The Coopers died while vacationing with their daughter, Kelly Ormerod, and three grandchildren. On August 21, 2018, at 1 a.m., John Cooper allegedly called Ormerod and told her he was feeling unwell, then took his granddaughter, who was staying in her grandparents’ room, to her room. The Coopers didn’t show up for breakfast. Their daughter went to her parents’ room, where she found the couple “seriously ill”. The 69-year-old was vomiting, saying he “really doesn’t feel very good,” his wife was lying in bed “moaning with vomit in her hair and all over the room,” and there was a “weird, heavy” smell around her, Ormerod said in court on Tuesday. Two doctors were then said to have arrived at the scene and were “in panic mode”. Resuscitation was attempted, but Cooper died in the hotel room. His wife was taken to a hotel clinic and then to a hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
The Independent, tvn24.pl
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