Dublin woman starved herself to death, inquest hears

A woman found dead at the side of her bed in south Dublin two years ago starved herself to death, an inquest at Dublin Coroner’s Court has heard.

Elizabeth Radhakrishnan (33), a single woman, was discovered in an upstairs bedroom of her home at Longwood Park, Rathfarnham, on June 20th, 2019 by gardaí­ who had been alerted by family members concerned that they had no contact from her for over two weeks.

Her cousin, Nicola Murray, told the inquest that the death of Ms Radhakrishnan's mother Margaret from cancer in June 2018 had a big impact on the deceased. Ms Murray said she suspected her cousin was suffering from depression.

The witness said she used to contact her cousin by phone or text as she refused repeated offers to meet in person and had turned down invitations to visit her relatives in New Ross, Co Wexford for Christmas and for a family christening.

Ms Murray said the last text she had from her cousin was on June 4th, 2019 when she replied to say she was “grand”.

She became worried after she failed to respond to a text she sent on the morning of June 20th, 2019, as it was most unusual for her not to reply to a text within 20 minutes.

Ms Murray said she and her father, Michael Brady, decided to travel up from New Ross to check on Ms Radhakrishnan as her phone was off when they tried to call her and it had been 16 days since their last contact from her.

When they got no answer at Ms Radhakrishnan’s house and neighbours said they had not seen her in several weeks, they called gardaí.

Emaciated

“I could tell something was seriously wrong,” said Ms Murray.

The inquest heard gardaí­ found Ms Radhakrishnan kneeling on the floor with her head resting on her bed after they had used a neighbour’s ladder to climb in an open upstairs window.

Garda Ciaran Kelly said there was no evidence of any instrument or medication that might have been linked to her death, but said Ms Radhakrishnan’s body was “extremely emaciated.”

He also observed that her clothes were “ill-fitting due to weight loss” while a suicide note was found at the scene. Garda Kelly noted two goldfish in a fish tank in the bedroom were still alive.

In reply to questions from the coroner, Aisling Gannon, Ms Murray said her cousin had struggled with her mental health even before her mother died.

Mr Brady said Ms Radhakrishnan’s father had been trying to get help for his daughter for a long time but was informed that as an adult, she would have to seek help for herself.

The inquest heard an autopsy calculated that Ms Radhakrishnan had a body mass index of 17.02 at the time of her death. Any measure below 18.5 is considered underweight for an adult.

A postmortem report found the deceased had no underlying physical health conditions and no alcohol or drugs were found in her body.

Ms Gannon said she was satisfied Ms Radhakrishnan’s death was as a result of starvation and returned a verdict of death by suicide.

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