THE DEATHS within days of each other of a mother and her daughter – who had returned to Ireland for her mother’s funeral – were described by a coroner yesterday as “an appalling double tragedy”.
Both women died in the same house and on each occasion there was a fire, the coroner’s court in Drogheda, Co Louth, was told.
The mother, Alicia Kring (56), had not been seen by friends and neighbours for a number of days and the inquest heard that while her body was found on May 3rd last she may have been dead for six or seven days.
Her sister Roselynn Floyd, who had not heard from her in a week, contacted gardaí. She told them her sister was a chronic alcoholic and a heavy smoker. They went to Ms Kring’s home in Oakwood Park, Termon Abbey, where they found the back windows blackened.
When gardaí went into the house they found her severely burned body on a couch in a back room. The inquest heard she was positively identified by her sister, who recognised her jewellery and her glasses.
In reply to the family, pathologist Dr John Ryan estimated she could have been dead for six or seven days. Decomposition was quite advanced.
However, he said she had died before the fire broke out. There was no sign of carbon monoxide poisoning and he concluded she died from acute respiratory failure.
He said she had a very high blood alcohol reading, of 359mg per 100ml of blood, which was potentially fatal. There were changes to her liver that can often cause sudden death. He found she did not die in the fire but “very quickly” before it.
In the inquest into the death of Susan Kring (34), the coroner was told that just after midnight on May 7th, gardaí were called back to Alicia’s house. They found it “engulfed in flames” and could not gain entry.
The fire service removed the remains of Susan, who lived in Bremen, Germany, and who had returned to Ireland for her mother’s funeral.
A postmortem was carried out by Deputy State Pathologist Dr Michael Curtis who concluded her death was due to inhalation of smoke and fire gases.
The inquests will be concluded at a later date.