‘Cyanide suicide’ victim lived yards from Scotsman hotel where she died
Saturday 3 auguSt 2013 A woMAN found dead after a suspected chemical-related suicide lived only yards from the upmarket hotel where her body and that of a man were discovered.
The Scotsman has learned the woman lived in a small onebedroom flat on the Royal Mile in edinburgh.
forensic teams were last night searching her property, which is around the corner from The Scotsman hotel where the bodies were found in a sixth-floor suite on Thursday afternoon.
officers wearing protective suits entered the second-floor flat at world’s end close yesterday afternoon. They had cordoned off access to the close and were seen searching inside and outside the area. Neighbours
“Police thought there was gas inside the property” Near neighbour
told how they saw them remove mail and open all the windows of the property.
Police have said the unexplained deaths were linked to a “chemical incident” and reports suggest the pair, both thought to be in their 40s, took their own lives using home-made cyanide. Both were believed to have come from eastern europe.
There were unconfirmed reports that a lengthy suicide note was found in the suite near to where the bodies were discovered at 12:15pm on Thursday.
Neighbours said an eastern european woman had lived in the rented property for several years and her partner was there often. one, who asked not to be named, said he had not seen the woman for two days.
“we first noticed
officers around the close on Thursday but didn’t think too much of it until friday, when about seven or eight people in white sceneof-crime suits arrived,” he said.
“Another of my neighbours spoke to police and said they have opened all of the windows because they thought there was gas inside the property. Police removed the mail as well.
“we realised that something serious had obviously happened and we thought it was an odd coincidence after what happened at the hotel. Now we know it’s linked we’re obviously fairly shocked.
“It’s a very strange story really and immensely sad. Booking into an expensive hotel just up the road and they did.”
he added that he had seen the woman moving her belongings out of the flat a few days before the incident.
fraser Millward, 32, from London, is staying in a rented flat for a festival show and said officers had cordoned off the area yesterday afternoon. “I saw about ten police officers gathered discussing things but they wouldn’t tell us anything. The officer I spoke to said there was nothing to worry about,” he said.
Guests were evacuated from several floors of the hotel – which was believed to have been full at the time – with many left waiting outside for more than seven hours.
It is understood the pair had stayed at the hotel for several days and had been due to check out on the day they were found.
They are understood to have been discovered in bed and staff raised the alarm after finding an
then
doing
what
500ft N or th Br id ge
Waverley station
Street High “unidentified room.
fire crews wearing protective chemical-proof suits were seen going in and out of the building for most of the day and were understood to have been checking if there was a risk to the public as a result of the chemicals found in the room.
Police have finished their inquiries in the hotel room and a number of items have been seized by officers for forensic tests.
chief Inspector Murray Dykes
substance”
in
the said: “our inquiries within the room have now concluded and all items collected from inside will undergo thorough examination to help us determine how both individuals died.”
Sources close to the investigation said it was thought the pair may have mixed two liquid substances to create a toxic vapour that led to their deaths and sparked the chemical response.
emergency services have been specially trained to respond to chemical suicides due to an increase of such instances in recent years.
The Scotsman hotel is located on North Bridge. Sandra Didlake, 70, an American guest staying on the floor above where the couple were found, said she noticed a “horrible smell”, coming through the lift on wednesday.
“It was so bad that you couldn’t breathe,” she said. “It was getting in our room. I said to my sister, ‘wouldn’t it be terrible if there was a dead body in a room?”