Model was found hanging at home
AFORMER model who struggled with alcohol addiction was found hanging after her drinking ‘spiralled out of control’, an inquest heard.
Monica McDermott, 44, was drinking champagne and had a family argument before spending the evening alone in her bedroom in December.
The inquest heard her mother Noreen McDermott had hid the bottle from her. Noreen then watched TV at the family home in Mill Lane, Macclesfield.
But when another family member went upstairs later that night he found her and screamed downstairs for help.
Miss McDermott was taken to Macclesfield General Hospital just before 9pm.
She was in a coma for several days and passed away on Wednesday, December 13, 2017, after treatment was withdrawn.
Area coroner for Cheshire Claire Welch told the inquest in Warrington she had been found hanging.
Police attended the scene and found no suspicious signs or of involvement from a third party.
The coroner told the court that Miss McDermott died from asphyxiation and irreversible brain damage.
Mrs Welch told the hearing that she could not be certain that it was Miss McDermott’s intention to kill herself and so it could not be confirmed as suicide.
She said: “During the course of the evening [a family member] had been upstairs to check on her and she would have been aware of the fact that he was downstairs watching television and could and did go in her bedroom for periods of time.
“The fact that her mother and [the family member] were in the property and could have entered the room means that I can’t be satisfied that she did it with the intention to end her life.
“It may have been a cry for help and she intended to be found.
“Whether or not she intended to take her own life cannot be ascertained by the evidence.
“It is an open conclusion.”
She added: “I would like to send my condolences to her family and friends and wish them well for the future.”
Mrs Welch also told the hearing that given her past history of mental health, the death also could not be classed as misadventure as it was not entirely accidental.
In the two years prior to her death, Miss McDermott had been battling an addiction to alcohol she used to deal with depression and anxiety, the inquest heard.
She had been given anti-depressants by her GP, but had told him she was dealing with her anxiety and depression through periods of abstinence and exercise.
A statement from Noreen McDermott, read out by the coroner at the hearing, said that over time her drinking ‘spiralled out of control’ and she had tried to help.
She said: “In February 2017 we went to her home and cleared out all of her alcohol.
“She told her sister that she needed to self medicate.
“We persuaded her to go to rehab in Warrington for 13 days.
“She was a successful model and a loving and caring mother to her son.
“We tried to help her with her addiction but it finally got the better of her and was her demise.
“She passed away on December 13 with all of her family beside her.”
‘She was a successful model and a loving and caring mother’