Walsall mother died trapped behind fence in subzero temperatures
A young mother from Walsall died alone and confused in the freezing cold in the grounds of a primary school after taking a cocktail of drugs, an inquest heard.
Charlotte Christodolou, from Walsall, was left by a friend at a school late at night after she failed to scale a high perimeter fence, it was heard.
The body of the 23-year-old was later found in a doorway in the grounds of Harlescott Junior School on January 4.
Jamie Lloyd-Butler, who had gone on to the site with Miss Christodolou in an attempt to take a shortcut to a friend's house, denied he had left her to die.
He revealed he had returned to the spot the next day after receiving a worried phone call from Miss Christodolou's mother when she couldn't contact her daughter.
Mr Lloyd-Butler, who had known Charlotte for three months, said the pair had became trapped by the high perimeter fencing on the evening of January 2.
While Mr Lloyd-Butler, of Overstone, Harlescott, was able to scale the fencing surrounding the Shrewsbury school's playing fields, Miss Christodoulou could not. "I wouldn't just leave her there," said Mr Lloyd-Butler. "I went over the fence and then told her to stay and wait and I would come back." But he didn't return to look for her immediately and instead went back the following day, he told Mr John Ellery, coroner for Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin at an inquest yesterday.
"I went back because her mum had telephoned asking where she was. I contacted the police and I went out looking for her. But I could not find her."
Paul Davies, whose home in Craig Close, Harlescott the couple were trying to reach via a shortcut told Mr Ellery that he had never met Miss Christodoulou before January 2 but she seemed drunk when he saw her. He had given her and Mr Lloyd-Butler a lift to a home store on a nearby retail park. Friend Laureen Williams told the inquest how she and Miss Christodoulou had gone to the home store to shoplift and had then sold the items to buy drugs. "She told me she had been on a massive binge," said Miss Williams.
Mr Alexander Kolar, Home Office pathologist, said that toxicology tests showed Miss Christodoulou had levels of diazepam, cannabis, cocaine and morphine in her system. He also found that she had numerous cuts and bruises on her body which were similar in type to those caused by being dragged or walking through thick vegetation. He said: "There were features in her death of the type you find in cases of hypothermia. Hypothermia is not a quick death. The outside temperature at the time of her death was subzero."
Mr Ellery asked Mr Kolar if Miss Christodoulou would have been conscious for long. "She was not lying there conscious and functioning," he said. "Due to the drugs in her system her natural functions would have been reduced."
In reaching his conclusion of death by misadventure Mr Ellery said: "It was a freezing night and Miss Christodoulou was not wearing thick clothing. "She was disorientated and confused.
The bare facts are that Miss Christodoulou died of hypothermia."
Three people were arrested. Two men, 32 and 39, and a woman, 31, all from the Shrewsbury area, were arrested on suspicion of obstructing a coroner. No further action was taken.
