A coroner has concluded an inquest into the death of a woman believed to have been left undiscovered for several days after she died.
Sarah Gasson, 49, was found at her address in Colchester on Tuesday, April 16, Essex Coroner’s Court heard.
The inquest was told Ms Gasson, of Solway Court, Greenstead, was surrounded by drug paraphernalia and had blood coming from her eyes and nose.
Police initially treated her cause of death as being drug-related and requested Ms Gasson’s death was investigated further.
Area coroner for Essex, Michelle Brown, said: “Due to her decomposition, police were suspicious that maybe someone had intervened, shall we say, or at the least failed to report a death.”
Police then requested a forensic post-mortem examination to rule out the possibility of third-party involvement.
However, that report – which was carried out by forensic pathologist Dr Ben Swift – did not offer a cause of death because the decomposition of Ms Gasson’s body made it difficult to gather enough evidence to make a formal conclusion.
Reading Dr Swift’s report to the inquest, Mrs Brown said: “Whilst a traumatic assault had been excluded, I am unable to provide a cause of death.
“No toxicology was identified.
“The decomposition affected my ability to conclude the findings, and therefore I cannot conclude a drug-related death.
“I can find no evidence of the samples analysed for the highly potent synthetic opioids that form the nitazine group.”
The court then heard how Ms Gasson’s father last heard from her eight days before her body was found.
Mrs Brown continued: “The last time he saw her was on Monday, April 8.
“She said things were fine and she was sorting out her home – she was not feeling that well, but she was OK.
“The last message she sent was at 8.13pm on April 8 in which she stated if she didn’t feel any better, she would go to the emergency doctors.”
Ms Gasson did not reply to further messages sent to her on April 10 and April 14, suggesting a rough idea of when she died, the coroner said.
Mrs Brown gave an open conclusion, saying Ms Gasson’s death was unascertained.
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