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Woman, 36, and her boyfriend are found dead in Bangkok hotel room having ‘unwittingly taken lethal cocktail of drugs’: Mother tells of her heartbreak
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A young British woman and her boyfriend died after unwittingly consuming a lethal cocktail of drugs while travelling in Thailand.
Rebecca Turner, 36, died in a Bangkok hotel room after taking what she thought was a line of cocaine with her partner.
It later transpired the powder they had purchased contained a lethal combination of nine drugs, including painkillers, sleeping pills and anxiety medications.
Rebecca’s devastated mother is now warning other young people to resist pushy street drug dealers while on holiday.
Anita Turner, 64, from Bexhill-on-Sea, East Sussex, 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.
‘There is a massive drug problem out there and you just don’t know what you’re getting or how strong it is. You need to be really careful. It’s really not worth the risk.’
Rebecca had been travelling in Thailand when she died on March 15. She was due to fly home one month later.
Mrs Turner said her daughter had previously spent four years in Laos and described it as her second home.
Rebecca Turner died in Thailand after unwittingly taking a ‘cocktail of lethal drugs’
Anita Turner (left) said the pain of losing her daughter Rebecca was ‘indescribable’
Rebecca’s mother said: ‘Every morning I wake up and see a picture of her and just cry and cry’
She had been to a friend’s wedding in Laos before she and Sam, a self-employed gas-engineer and plumber, checked into the Khaosan Palace Hotel in Bangkok on March 15.
CCTV showed Sam entering the hotel half an hour before Rebecca that day. He had texted a friend saying he had just bought some cocaine, Mrs Turner said.
Rebecca and Sam are thought to have died around 1pm. Their bodies were discovered by friends who went looking for them. His body was in bed, Rebecca’s was on the floor.
Officials told Mrs Turner there were nine drugs in her daughter’s system — including opiates, morphine, codeine, noscapine, benzodiazepine, temazepam, lorazepam, diazepam and monoacetylmorphine.
‘So many people are dying and people need to know about this,’ said Mrs Turner. ‘That road [where Rebecca was staying] is particularly bad — a boy died of the same thing just a day before.
‘I just want to tap people on the shoulders and tell them: just please don’t take anything.’
Mrs Turner was sent an autopsy report from Thailand but she said parts were censored.
A UK inquest into Rebecca’s death is expected to be heard in January.
A family photo of Rebecca Young as a child, her inquest is expected to be heard in January
Rebecca had been travelling in Thailand and was due to fly home just a month after she died
Rebecca Truner had previously lived in Laos in southeast asia for four years, her mother described it as Rebecca’s ‘second home’
Last month, six tourists — including a British lawyer — died in Laos after drinking vodka laced with deadly methanol.
Trainee solicitor Simone White, 28, was among five young women and one man who consumed vodka at the £6-a-night Nana Backpacker Hostel.
Just 4ml of methanol, a common by-product of home-brewed alcohol which is sometimes added to bootleg drinks to make them stronger, can be lethal.
All six people died despite receiving medical treatment. A further dozen needed hospital treatment but survived.
A spokesperson for the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) said: ‘We are supporting the family of a British national who died in Thailand and are in contact with the local authorities’
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