A verdict of death by misadventure has been returned in the case of a teenager who was found dead in a derelict basement in Dublin last year.
Tracey Fay (18) was found dead outside a disused toilet in the basement of 15 Granby Row, near Parnell Square, on January 24th, 2002. She had been in the care of the Eastern Health Board and subsequently the Northern Area Health Board since she was 14.
The Dublin City Coroner, Dr Brian Farrell, was told Tracey had been staying at Orchard View, a sheltered residence in the Grangegorman area owned by the NAHB. She was reported missing by the staff at Orchard View on Sunday, January 20th.
The last person she saw before her death, Mr Patrick Carney, gave evidence. He said "a girl called Tracey" called to the squat in Granby Row, where she had been living for a number of weeks, at about 10 p.m. on Monday, January 21st. He had met her once before.
"She said to me would I get her a bag of heroin. She said she had taken some Es and didn't like the buzz and wanted some gear to come down. She gave me about €23." He bought heroin on Dorset Street and returned to the squat where Tracey asked him to heat the heroin and put it into a syringe.
"I said 'you're not really on heroin', as she didn't know how to cook it. I noticed she had a few track marks on her arm and she asked me to inject it into her."
Mr Carney said he would not and that she did so herself and went to sleep about 10 minutes later. He was wakened the next day at about noon by Tracey's snoring and went to beg around Dublin. He returned at about midnight and found Tracey still lying in the same place.
"I tried to kick her and then noticed she was cold. I tried to get a pulse in her neck and there wasn't one. I knew she was dead."
He left and called 999 from a phone box behind the Ilac shopping centre nearby, telling gardaí there was a body. He returned to the squat at about noon on Wednesday and found the body still there. He called 999 again. Gardaí said they had not been able to find the body and assumed his last call had been a hoax.
At about 3 p.m. he met Garda Kevin Keyes of Mountjoy Garda station and showed him where Ms Fay's body was.
Garda Keyes said Mr Carney's calls had been confusing as he had given the location as a house with a red door on Parnell Square. 15 Granby Row had a blue door.
Ms Fay's family was present at the inquest. Her mother, Ms Doreen Fay, and her uncle, Mr Damian Fay, questioned whether Tracey would have been willing to inject herself. Ms Kelly-Ann Moore, who had known Mr Carney and who met him by chance on night of Tuesday, January 22nd, in Dame Street, said he told her about the body in the squat and that "he panicked".
"I got home about 2 or 3 a.m. and I rang 999 and told the gardaí about the body. I was in such a panic. It's not something you hear every day about a young girl."
The deputy State Pathologist, Ms Marie Cassidy, said there had been one needle mark on Tracey's right arm. The heroin had been injected subcutaneously rather than into the vein. There was bruising around the needle mark "which is very unusual in an experienced drug user". Heroin that has been injected subcutaneously takes "a lot longer to diffuse" into the system.
"The effect would take a long time to build up. This slow absorption would lead to a depression of the central nervous system," said Ms Cassidy. She found evidence that Tracey had vomited while in a comatose state and had choked. Her lungs were water-logged. She gave the cause of death as inhalation of vomit due to heroin intoxication.
Dr Farrell returned a verdict of death by misadventure with no suspicious circumstances or direct third party involvement.
Ms Fay's mother said afterwards she was "disgusted" with the verdict.
