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Abstract

The body of a woman who died from heart failure lay in her Finsbury Park flat for seven days before she was found by police, an inquest has heard.

Zena Tafari, 51, of Fonthill Road, was discovered in her bed by two police constables who forced their way into her flat on April 11.

The 51-year-old, who had a long history of mental ill health and had been drinking and smoking heavily for years, had last spoken to mental health workers seven days earlier before apparently going off the radar.

A St Pancras inquest into Ms Tafari’s death on Friday heard that she had been in the care of Camden and Islington NHS Foundation Trust.

She was said to have had a good relationship with health workers but regularly missed appointments and refused to seek help to stop her heavy drinking.

In the weeks leading up to her death, Ms Tafari reported having liver problems and a swollen abdomen, and said her asthma had worsened.

Mental health staff had raised concerns about her physical health and had agreed for her to have a check-up.

However, a week before she was found, health workers were not able to contact her on any of her three mobile phone numbers. When she did not turn up for a check-up on April 7, mental health workers went to her house and left a note under the door when she did not answer.

Four days later, a concerned friend who had not heard from her in eight days phoned police.

Ms Tafari was found dead in her bed by officers who forced their way into the apartment. The door to her flat was locked from the inside and police found no suspicious circumstances.

However, at the inquest Ms Tafari’s sister suggested that she may have committed suicide. She said Ms Tafari had written a letter saying a final goodbye to her, which she had found in the Fonthill Road flat two weeks before her death.

She questioned why no alcohol had been found in her sister’s blood after her death, despite her habit of drinking half a bottle of whiskey a day.

“How can there be zero trace of alcohol when she drank so heavily?” Ms Tafari’s sister asked assistant coroner Richard Brittain. “I thought it was suspicious. She said goodbye to me two weeks earlier and she looked like she had lost five stone in five weeks.”

Mr Brittain said there was no evidence Ms Tafari had taken her own life.

“It was clear that she was a heavy drinker, but in the few days before her death she appeared to be quite unwell,” he said. “It seems that she did not have the opportunity to drink the same level of alcohol she would normally do.

“I think, based on the postmortem findings, the toxicity analysis does not note any concern of an overdose or any injuries. There is no indication of any direct attempt to take her own life.”

He concluded that she died of natural causes. Cause of death was recorded as heart failure due to hypertensive heart disease, with ischaemic heart disease as a contributing factor.