Violinist, 16, killed herself over friend’s knife murder
A TALENTED teenage musician killed herself while depressed over a friend’s murder, an inquest heard yesterday.
Natasha Warnes, 16, played in the same youth orchestra as the victim, who had been stabbed to death with her family three months before.
She was said to have been left ‘devastated’ by the killing of 18-yearold Xing Ding, a fellow violinist.
The day before Natasha’s lifeless body was discovered in her bedroom, she asked her boyfriend: ‘What would you do if I died tomorrow? Don’t worry, just curious.’
Her boyfriend, Nathan Smith, replied: ‘It would be like when Xing died, only worse.’
Miss Ding was stabbed to death along with her sister Alice, 12, and parents Jifeng, 46, and Helen, 47, at their home in Northampton.
A worldwide manhunt has been launched for the suspected killer, Helen’s former business partner Anxiang Du, 52, following the murder spree on the day of the Royal Wedding last year.
Natasha and Miss Ding played in the Northamptonshire Youth Orchestra and Natasha had recently appeared at the finals of the National Festival of Music for Youth.
Natasha, who was known as Tash, killed herself on July 28 last year, the inquest held at Northampton General Hospital heard yesterday.
She had first used a chair to barricade herself in her bedroom at her home in Northampton’s Abington district.
Her friend Aleksandr Rokicki, 19, had gone to the home after realising something was wrong because she had deleted her Facebook profile.
After being let in by Natasha’s younger sister, he forced his way through the bedroom door and performed CPR but Natasha was pronounced dead in hospital.
The cause of death was suffocation and an overdose of sleeping pills. She had left two suicide notes – one to her parents, Mark, 43, and Emma, 38; and the other to her boyfriend.
The churchgoing teenager, who lived with her parents and younger sister Samantha, was a student in the mixed sixth form of Northampton School for Boys.
She played the violin, mandolin, penny whistle and guitar and had composed her own music. She had performed her own orchestral score at a local theatre in front of an audience of more than a thousand.
In his evidence, Mr Smith said of his girlfriend: ‘She was a bubbly,
‘She had low self-esteem’
outgoing person who told people how it was. She loved music and was rarely unhappy. Once or twice she said she was depressed. She took the murder of Xing very badly.’
He said that three days before her death, Natasha ‘ said she was depressed, couldn’t sleep and wanted to end it all. I thought it was
depression she wanted to end and tried to get her to be cheerful.’
He said they had gone to Sainsbury’s and bought a packet of tablets to help her sleep. He said he was shocked when he found out she had used them to kill herself, telling the inquest: ‘I had no idea she would do something like that.’
Natasha’s father told the Northampton hearing his daughter had been ‘devastated when her friend Xing Ding and her family were murdered.’
Mr Rokicki said that in the days before her death, Natasha had been ‘pre-occupied’. He added: ‘She was upset about the Ding murders.
‘She had very low self- esteem. She had injured herself the day before she died and couldn’t play the violin. She seemed lost.
‘When there was a problem on Facebook, I was worried. I rang a few friends to see if they could see her profile. It had been deleted.’
Recording a verdict of suicide, Northamptonshire Coroner Anne Pember said: ‘She was only 16 and should have had so much ahead of her to live for. At the time, she was feeling low and depressed and she made a decision that she no longer wished to live.’