Lady Lucan’s drink and drugs suicide after Parkinson’s scare
Lady Lucan feared Parkinson’s after hand tremor EIGHTY-year-old Lady Lucan killed herself with a cocktail of drink and drugs after becoming convinced she had Parkinson’s disease, a coroner said yesterday.
The wife of runaway peer Lord Lucan spent months studying ways of taking her life, making diary notes on the subject.
The Westminster inquest was told that on the day she committed suicide, she may also have used a plastic bag and builder’s mask in a bid to suffocate herself.
The suicide verdict brought an end to a saga triggered by the murder of Lucan family nanny Sandra Rivett and the playboy peer’s flight in 1974.
Lucan’s daughter followed proceedings from the public gallery.
His wife drifted into a reclusive life and lived alone at a mews cottage in London’s upmarket Belgravia where she died last September.
Police found her body after a worried friend told them she had missed their regular stroll in St James’s Park.
Officers found diaries containing Lady Lucan’s notes on suicide if she became frail.
The inquest was told the cause of death was respiratory failure due to alcohol and barbiturates poisoning. She was wearing a Camilla yesterday nightdress and had a graze on her head. Nearby was an unmarked bottle with one pill inside. There was also a plastic bag and mask.
Coroner Dr Fiona Wilcox said: “I’m entirely satisfied that suicide is the final conclusion.
“There’s evidence of intention, with handwritten notes detailing concerns about her health.
“Although there is no suicide note there are diary entries in which she details these thoughts.”
Lady Lucan’s friend David Davies, who reported the motherof-three’s disappearance to police, said she believed she had Parkinson’s disease and had talked about Lady Lucan with her husband Lord Lucan. He vanished after their nanny Sandra Rivett was murdered at their home in 1974. He is also believed to have committed suicide. suicide with him. She had noticed a tremor in her right hand, lost her sense of smell, felt tired and anxious and suffered from insomnia. She was also becoming forgetful.
The Lucan mystery unfolded in 1974, when the 39-year-old peer disappeared after Miss Rivett, 29, was attacked by an intruder in the family home. Lady Lucan was also attacked and later swore that the assailant was her husband.
Police believe he killed himself by leaping off a cross-channel ferry. He was declared dead in 1999 and last year a death certificate was issued giving his son the right to inherit the family title.