Pastor ‘will have wife’s mystery death hanging over his head for ever’
Mother speaks out after inquest proves inconclusive
THE mystery surrounding the death of a Scots woman at a hotel in Ghana will hang over her husband ‘for the rest of his life’, her mother has said, after a coroner recorded an open conclusion at her inquest.
Charmain Speirs, 41, who was pregnant, was found dead in the bath of a hotel room in the city of Koforidua in March 2015, two days after her husband Eric Adusah had returned
‘I don’t know how it got in her body’
to the UK, the inquest in Chelmsford, Essex, heard.
Mr Adusah, a Christian preacher from Ghana, was arrested on suspicion of her murder by local police but the case was dropped due to insufficient evidence, the inquest heard. A post-mortem examination in Ghana gave the cause of death as a heroin overdose and a second post-mortem eight months later in the UK found no evidence of assault.
After hearing evidence from Home Office pathologist Charlotte Randall, who carried out the second post-mortem, senior coroner for Essex Caroline Beasley-Murray rejected possible conclusions of unlawful killing, suicide and accidental death.
Recording the medical cause of death as acute opiate poisoning, she said: ‘Because there wasn’t sufficient evidence for any of these possible conclusions, I’m going to return an open conclusion.’
She added: ‘We shall never quite know what happened. There just isn’t the evidence.’
Earlier Mr Adusah, who wore a wedding ring, had asked Miss Randall: ‘Is there any way you could find out how it [heroin] got in the body?
‘I wasn’t there but my name has gone everywhere and I have no idea what happened. I don’t know how it got in her body. My wife never took that in the house. I never saw her do anything like that.’
Speaking outside, Miss Speirs’ mother Linda said: ‘It is still hanging over him. It’s open, so it will hang over him for the rest of his life.’
She told reporters that it would ‘definitely’ be impossible for her daughter to inject or put heroin into her own body.
‘She wouldn’t have done it. We know that for a fact,’ she said.
Mrs Speirs said the inquest was ‘done well’, but ‘didn’t go into great details’. She was at the hearing with Peter, stepfather of Miss Speirs, who grew up in Arbroath, Angus.
Mr Adusah was also at the hearing along with around 30 members of his congregation from the Global Light Revival Ministries in north London.
The inquest heard the body of Miss Speirs was found at the MacDic Royal Plaza Hotel after she did not check out at midday on March 20, 2015, as scheduled.
Miss Randall, who conducted the second post-mortem in Essex, where Miss Speirs lived, said her examination was limited by the fact the body had been embalmed and more than eight months had passed since her death.
The Ghanaian post-mortem examination was conducted within a week of the death, when blood and urine samples could be analysed, and heroin was detected.
Miss Randall conducted tests on hair and found no traces of opiates, suggesting no evidence of longterm drug use.
Further toxicology tests found traces of morphine.
She found no evidence of assault, and also found nothing that suggested death from natural causes.
The second post-mortem examination recorded the medical cause of death as unascertained.
Miss Randall said she could not rule out ‘interference with the mechanics of breathing while intoxicated’.
Detective Inspector Stuart Smith, of Essex Police, said officers were notified of the death by the National Crime Agency.
He said: ‘There’s no direct evidence linking [Mr Adusah] to the death of the deceased.’