OVERDOSE OF HEROIN KILLED ADDICT

Source : 26/08/2000 Northampton Chronicle and Echo

A drug addict died after she took an overdose of heroin, an inquest in Northampton was told.

The 22-year-old mother was found in her room at the YMCA in St John's Station Passage, Northampton, on April 4.

In a statement read at her inquest yesterday, her half-sister said she had told her she was mixing cocaine and heroin on the day before she died.

She said she had overdosed in the past deliberately to end her life and had been receiving help from the Jesus Army.

Her mother said her suspicions of drug taking were confirmed in 1998 when she found drugs and said her daughter had to leave a homeless hostel when needles were found in her bedroom.

In October 1998, she moved into the YMCA to get help but had spoken about killing herself by injecting bleach, she said.

In recording a verdict of accidental death, Northamptonshire coroner Anne Pember said: 'It would seem that this young woman did have a drug problem that at times she would seek help for.'

'On occasions she had spoken of taking her own life but on the balance of probabilities I feel that her death was accidental.'