Sister of murdered backpacker dies five years after the killing
When backpacker hannah Witheridge was murdered on a Thai beach, it was an unimaginable shock for relatives.
now the family are dealing with fresh heartbreak. Almost five years to the day after 23-year-old Miss Witheridge was raped and beaten to death, her sister has died.
Laura Daniels, 30, died in hospital on Monday. The reason why Miss Daniels – who is understood to have married this year – had been in care was not clear last night.
her parents, Tony and Susan Witheridge, said in a statement: ‘We confirm that our beautiful girl Laura passed away on Monday.
‘Laura had been gravely ill and was being treated in hospital. Our hearts are broken, our lives shattered once more. The pain of this loss is indescribable and our family very much need time and privacy during this unbearable time.’
Miss Witheridge, of hemsby in norfolk, was raped on a beach on the parkeep adise island of Koh Tao in September 2014. She and her friend David Miller, 24, from Jersey, were then battered to death with a hoe.
Two Burmese migrants, Zaw Lin and Wai Phyo, both 25, were convicted in 2015. They claimed they were innocent and that torture had been used to force confessions, but they are facing the death penalty after their appeals against their conviction were thrown out last month by the Supreme Court in Thailand. In a Facebook post in January 2016, Miss Daniels criticised the ‘bungled’ police investigation into the deaths of her sister and Mr Miller.
She revealed at the time that she had been targeted by trolls who sent death threats and photos of the murder scene.
Previously, she had described how the family was ‘drop-kicked into the pits of hell’ by the loss. On a Go Fund Me donation page, which raised £17,000 for her family to attend the trial in Thailand, she wrote: ‘On my darkest days, I think about the people who have thrown themselves out of planes, run significant distances and those who have sacrificed previous pounds from tight budgets to support us.
‘It is in these selfless acts of kindness that I see reason to putting one foot in front of another.’ An inquest into Miss Witheridge’s death in February 2016 heard that her parents, who are separated, begged her not to go to Thailand because they feared for her safety.
She reassured them by saying she would message them or speak to them on Skype every day. Paying tribute to her ‘fun, vibrant and beautiful daughter’, Mrs Witheridge, 61, said: ‘Our family is broken and will never be the same again.’ A pathologist said there was evidence that Miss Witheridge, who was about to start the second year of a masters in speech and language at the University of Essex, had been drugged and sexually assaulted. The coroner ruled she was unlawfully killed.
Mr Miller was battered and drowned. his father has said he does not want the killers executed even though they had ‘done something quite terrible’.
‘Lives shattered once more’