The 18-year-old daughter of a city police officer was recently found dead in a room at her university campus in Liverpool, United Kingdom. She allegedly hanged herself, but her father contested the claim.
Georgina Thomsson had come to the UK from Chennai last year to study aerospace engineering at Liverpool University. She was found dead in a room at her university campus in Edge Hill, Liverpool on July 12.
Her father, J J Nagar police inspector S Thomsson, who rushed to Liverpool from Chennai, told the media that he was not allowed to see his daughter’s body for a couple of days after reaching there and suspected foul play.
“There is no fan or no iron rod in the room where she was found dead. How could she hang herself?” he said, in reference to her room on campus at Edge Hill, where she was found.
The Liverpool University said it was supporting Merseyside Police with their enquiries, a media report said. Thomsson has decided to approach the Indian High Commission for help to pay for repatriation of the body because of financial constraints, it added.
The local police are not treating the incident as suspicious and an inquest to determine the exact cause of death is due to open at the Liverpool Coroner’s Office on Friday. “The coroner is still awaiting results of a few inquiries before the inquest can open tomorrow. We hope to be able to release the body for funeral soon after,” a spokesperson for the coroner’s office said.
Thomsson had aspired to become an astronaut. She had not been in regular contact with her family in India and in one of her last emails a few months ago, she wrote about being unwell.
Kelvin Everest, University of Liverpool pro-vice-chancellor, said: “This case is with the coroner, and under UK law there are restrictions on the information we are able to disclose about the circumstances of the student’s death, but we are doing our utmost to support friends and family affected by this tragic event.”
(With PTI inputs)