British woman, 36, found dead in hotel room after taking lethal cocktail of drugs
A British woman died in her hotel room in Thailand after taking a lethal cocktail of drugs.
Rebecca Turner’s mum is urging young travellers and partygoers to be careful after the 36-year-old was found dead alongside boyfriend Sam Melnick, 32, in Bangkok earlier this year.
Mum Anita Turner, 64, from Bexhill-on-Sea, Sussex, said her daughter had bought what she thought was cocaine when she died on March 15.
But it turned out to be a lethal combination of nine different drugs – including crushed up painkillers and sleeping pills.
Anita says dealers are constantly pestering tourists to buy drugs and wants more done to stamp it out.
She said: ‘My heart is just broken in two – I can’t believe I’ll never see her again. Every morning, I wake up and see a picture of her and just cry and cry. It’s killing me.
‘The pain of losing a child is indescribable. You can’t imagine such pain until it happens to you.
‘Please, whatever you do, please don’t take something. It’s really not worth the risk.’
Rebecca had been in Thailand for a few months and was a month away from returning home when she died.
CCTV showed Sam heading into the hotel half and hour before her that day, with phone records showing he had texted a pal to say he had just bought cocaine.
But officials have since confirmed the substance was a mix of opiates, morphine, codeine, noscapine, benzodiazepine, tamazopam, noriazepines, diazepam and mono acetylmirohine.
Their bodies were found when friends went looking for them after they were supposed to have checked out.
Anita said Sam was lying in bed and Rebecca was discovered on the floor, adding she is believed to have tried to get to the bathroom.
She said she was sent an autopsy report from Thailand but said parts were blacked out.
‘I’m sure they blacked out the bits where it said what drugs were in her body,’ she added. ‘They don’t want people to know how bad the problem is out there.’
She added: ‘This is such a trauma: so painful and so shocking.
‘I just want to tap people on the shoulders and tell them – just please don’t take anything.’
An inquest is expected to reopen in January, Anita said.
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
For more stories like this, check our news page.