Family agony: Mystery remains on how woman died
Decopmposed body of missing woman found on Hampstead Heath, inquest told
THE family of a 56-year-old woman from Forest Gate, whose decomposed body was found on Hampstead Heath just hours before Blondie played at the Kenwood House concert, may never know how she died after a coroner returned an open verdict on her death.
Three members of the public found Maria Bukreedan’s body in undergrowth at the top of Parliament Hill on one of the hottest days of this year, June 26.
At an inquest into her death, Detective Inspector Gary Randall of Camden CID, said there were no signs that Mrs Bukreedan, who lived in Shaftsbury Road, and suffered mental illness, had tried to harm herself. He added that the position her body had been found in suggested she had been trying to keep warm, rather than her being in distress.
Her husband Anwar told St Pancras Coroner’s Court that he had reported his wife missing from their home a month earlier, on May 26.
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Just three days earlier she had returned from a two-month trip visiting her family in Spain.
When the coroner Dr Andrew Reid asked about his wife’s mood in those three days, he replied: “She was ok. I didn’t see any changes. I would have taken precautions if I had.”
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Asked whether her disappearance was out of character, he told the court that she had gone missing twice in Spain overnight and stopped taking tablets prescribed for mental illness.
Dr Ariya, an associate specialist psychiatrist at Newham Community Mental Health Team, told the court Mrs Bukreedan was suffering from a schizophrenic illness.
In recording a verdict of an open death, the coroner Dr Reid said: “I am not able to conclude the cause of her death but I can exclude third party violence and that she voluntarily harmed herself.”
