Woman (26) living in Focus Ireland accommodation found ‘number of days’ after death, inquest hears

A woman living in accommodation run by a homeless charity was found “a number of days” after her death, an inquest into her death has heard.

Eileen Kavanagh (26), of 314 George’s Hill on Halston Street, Dublin, support accommodation run by Focus Ireland, was found dead in her room on the morning of November 5th, 2021.

Speaking at Dublin coroner’s court on Tuesday afternoon, Noel Russell, who works for Focus Ireland, said that morning, he received a phone call from a colleague asking him to check Ms Kavanagh’s apartment as she had not been seen for several days.

He said he rang the doorbell and called her name several times. He then entered the property using his master key, where he saw she was lying in bed. He tried to wake her, but discovered she was cold to the touch.

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“I observed maggots coming out of her mouth,” he said, before stating he called an ambulance just before midday.

Investigating garda Amy Murtagh said that following a cursory search of the room, there was no evidence of suspicious activity or drug paraphernalia. Ms Kavanagh was pronounced dead after 1pm.

The coroner was told the last known sighting of Ms Kavanagh before her death was by Donna Kinsella, a security worker at the premises, on October 30th.

She couldn’t recall the exact time she saw Ms Kavanagh, but Ms Kinsella said it was sometime between 9am and 5pm. She remembered seeing her as she was wearing a “happy birthday” badge at the time, she said.

The inquest heard there was a log of Ms Kavanagh exiting the accommodation that day, but no record of her returning.

Ms Kavanagh’s mother Audrey told the coroner that when her daughter failed to meet her on Monday, November 1st, she became worried about her wellbeing and contacted Focus Ireland and other charities, seeking information about her whereabouts.

She then contacted a key worker in the Anna Liffey Project, with whom Ms Kavanagh was also connected, who subsequently contacted Focus Ireland, and requested the welfare check that resulted in her body being found.

Ms Kavanagh had a series of mental health issues, including bipolar disorder, depression, learning difficulties and a number of psychosocial triggers.

A report by Kieran Harkin, a doctor at Merchants Quay Ireland (MQI) who was treating Ms Kavanagh at the time of her death, said she started methadone in May 2021, as she had been smoking five bags of heroine daily, doing cocaine and drinking heavily.

However, he said her attendance for treatment was “erratic” and she discharged herself from Barrymore House rehab centre in August 2021 after three days.

According to the postmortem report, there were a number of drugs in her system at the time of death, including cocaine, methadone, oxycodone and morphine.

Coroner Aisling Gannon said Ms Kavanagh’s death was due to multiple drug ingestion and returned a verdict of death by misadventure.

“It would appear this was an unintended consequence of an intended act,” she said, acknowledging that her death “brings significant grief to all parties who were in any way affected”.

Speaking after the inquest, Ms Kavanagh’s mother said she still had many questions about why her daughter was not checked on earlier, adding it was a huge loss that she was gone.

“She was funny, witty, and up to devilment. If she saw something that she wanted, she’d go get it. There was no stopping her. Even though she had her problems, she had a good side to her; a lovabe side to her,” she added.

A spokesman for Focus Ireland said it has a policy of checking in every three days with tenants who are living independently at Georges Hill.

“Eileen’s case manager became concerned about her failure to respond to phone calls and alerted staff at Georges Hill, who entered the apartment to find that Eileen had sadly passed away,” the spokesman said.

“Focus Ireland has a policy of undertaking a review of every unexpected death in our services and housing. A full review was undertaken in this case and policies were reviewed arising from this. Focus Ireland expresses its condolences to Eileen’s family and friends.”