One of Britain's richest women, whose corpse was found rotting under a pile of bedding, died as a result of drug abuse, a coroner ruled at an inquest Friday. Eva Rausing, 48, was married to Hans Kristian Rausing, heir to the billions his Swedish father made selling his stake in food packaging giant Tetra Pak. Her body was found on July 9, foil pipe in hand, in a taped-up, fly-filled room in their plush, five-storey west London home, the city's Westminster Coroner's Court heard.
A post-mortem examination found the American philanthropist died in early May and had drugs in her system. Deputy coroner Shirley Radcliffe said Rausing died due to cocaine intoxication and that a heart condition also contributed to her death. "Mrs Rausing's death was as a result of the dependent abuse of drugs," Radcliffe said.
Toxicology tests found cocaine, opiates and amphetamines in Rausing's blood and her pacemaker revealed that she suffered a "non-survivable" heart rhythm on May 7, over two months before she was found by police. In a statement read to the inquest, Rausing's 49-year-old husband said he had been left devastated by the death of his "beloved wife". He said he heard her slide off the bed while he was in the bathroom.
"She landed sideways and her head was resting on a pillow," he said. "I tried to pull her up. I shouted, 'Eva, Eva, Eva'." Rausing said he could see his wife's eyes dim before covering her lifeless body with duvets and bedding. "I could not cope with her dying or confront the reality of her death," he added. The couple first met at a drug addiction clinic. They have four teenage children.
In England, inquests are held to examine sudden or unexplained deaths and can record any one of a number of possible verdicts including suicide or misadventure. They do not apportion blame. This branch of the Rausings is the 12th richest family in Britain, worth £4.3 billion ($6.9 billion, 5.3 billion euros), according to The Sunday Times newspaper's Rich List 2012.