|
 A post-mortem examination failed to establish the cause of
her death on April 7 but an inquest was told on Thursday that
forensic tests found heroin in the 25-year-old's system.
Her death brought back memories of that of her mother,
television presenter Paula Yates, who died of a heroin overdose
aged 41 in 2000 while alone with her youngest daughter, Tiger
Lily, then aged 4.
"There was recent use of heroin and the levels identified were
likely to have played a role in her death," Detective Chief
Inspector Paul Fotheringham said in a statement at the opening
of the inquest into Geldof's death.
Geldof, a media and fashion personality and the mother of two
young boys, was the second of Irish musician and campaigner Bob
Geldof and Yates's three daughters.
The inquest heard her body was found by her husband of two
years, musician Thomas Cohen, in a spare bedroom of their home
in Wrotham, Kent, in southern England in the afternoon of
Monday, April 7.
Cohen had been staying the weekend at his parents' house in
southeast London with the couple's sons and his father dropped
their youngest boy, 1-year-old Phaedra, back with Peaches late
on Sunday afternoon.
Throughout the weekend she had been in touch with family and
friends and her last phone call was with a friend at 7.45 p.m.
on Sunday.
"All of the friends and family who had contact with Peaches
during this period describe how she seemed her normal self and
was making plans for the future ... there was no cause for any
concern," Fotheringham said.
[to top of second column] |
But Cohen became concerned when he could not contact his wife the
next morning and went to their house with his mother and their other
son, 2-year-old Astala.
He found Geldof slumped across a bed and police said it was obvious
to him that she was dead. He quickly located Phaedra and called the
emergency services.
Police who were treating her death as "non-suspicious but
unexplained" said there was no evidence to suggest anyone else was
involved. The inquest was adjourned until July 23.
Peaches Geldof had been a regular on London's party scene for years
but, after becoming a mother, quit the city for country life.
At the time of her death, she was a columnist for Mother & Baby
magazine, writing that "being a mum is the best thing in my life"
and she was "happier than ever".
Bob Geldof said the loss of Peaches had left him and his family
"beyond pain" with celebrities from Britain's television and music
worlds joining him at his daughter's funeral on April 21.
(Reporting by Belinda Goldsmith; editing by Stephen Addison)
[© 2014 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2014 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
 |
