Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
My family can’t move on until we know how my parents died
Daughter’s 2-year bid for answers
THE distraught daughter of a British couple who died suddenly on holiday two years ago is still battling to find out what killed them.
Kelly Ormerod, 42, who has created a woodland memorial to them, said her search for the truth has been hampered.
As the second anniversary of the mysterious deaths approaches, she added: “We can’t move on until we know.
“We need to know what happened and find out who is responsible.”
Kelly was on a Thomas Cook holiday in Egypt with her “fit and healthy” parents John and Susan Cooper, when tragedy struck on August 21, 2018.
She found them both close to collapse in their room at the five-star Steigenberger Aqua Magic Hotel in the Red Sea resort of Hurghada.
Doctors were called but it was too late for John, 69. Susan, 64, died en route to hospital. Their deaths are still unexplained.
Egyptian authorities say they were due to natural causes linked to an E.coli infection.
A preliminary inquest in the UK suggested
“infectious biological agent or toxic chemicals” were to blame. Kelly believes carbon monoxide poisoning was responsible.
Thomas Cook went out of business in September last year, and Kelly says she has been left “in limbo” since then.
The mum-of-three, of Burnley, Lancs, added: “No one is telling me anything.” An inquest was opened and adjourned in Preston in May last year.
Kelly said: “I’ve been in contact with the coroner’s clerk and they said they’ll keep me posted. But I’ve heard nothing. “I appreciate we’ve had this pandemic... but to not know anything new from May 2019 until now is wrong.” She met Thomas Cook representatives last summer but said they were “uncooperative”. Kelly, who has moved into her parents’ home in Burnley with her kids as “a coping mechanism”, added: “Every day is a struggle.” She will mark the anniversary by visiting the tree that has become a memorial. It is decorated with flowers and photos.
Only child Kelly said: “It is somewhere we can have a few quiet moments and remember Mum and Dad.”