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Mystery over death of woman found by dog walker on Heath
Mother of two ‘driven crazy’ by social services who took children into care
THE last movements of a mother-of-two found dead on Hampstead Heath remain a mystery, an inquest has heard.
Hazel Mamdani, 47, had been missing from her home for four days before a dog walker found her body in woodland near Whitestone Pond in March.
An autopsy found she had died just hours before she was discovered and revealed high levels of the anti-depressant drug Temazepam in her blood.
Her husband, Salim Mamdani, told St Pancras Coroner’s Court on Thursday that the former civil servant had been “driven crazy” by Haringey social services, who took her children into care in 2002.
According to social service records, she had not seen her children since December 2004.
“My wife always complained about not being given access to the children and each time the social services made more lies about her that have driven her crazy,” he said.
On the last day he saw his wife alive Mr Mamdani said she had spoken of leaving their home in Crouch End and “going to the Isle of Man for a while”. He later discovered two notes in her handwriting, one informing him she was leaving “to avoid social services”.
The other note read: “Sorry to have caused you all that trouble.”
Mr Mamdani, who described his wife as “his best friend”, said he had been embarrassed to report it to police as she had often gone missing before but had always turned up.
He added that she had become increasingly withdrawn and obsessed with TV and celebrities.
“She appeared quite normal. [But] she had completely lost reality with what she was doing,” he said.
The family’s former GP, Dr Hoda Botros, said Mrs Mamdani’s depression went back to the birth of her second child.
Dr Botros had reported the couple to social services following a consultation with them in 2002. The reasons for referral were not given in court.
Annie Walker, a Haringey social worker, said: “It didn’t appear social services ever denied Mrs Mamdani contact with her children”. She also said the couple’s children had said they did not wish to see their parents.
Ms Walker added: “Arrangements were made for them to attend their mother’s funeral but they chose not to.”
Dog walker Karen Fredman found Mrs Mamdani’s body dressed in black tracksuit trousers and a black hoodie when she had been unable to call the dogs away from a bush near the Heath’s viaduct bridge on March 11.
Two medicine bottles were also found nearby.
The level of Temazepam in her system was four times higher than the therapeutic dose but less than the usual lethal amount, according to Dr Freddy Patel, a forensic pathologist.
Coroner Dr Andrew Reid said: “The notes left to her husband cannot be considered as sufficient evidence she intended to take her own life. The evidence indicates she had consumed an opiate drug but there is no evidence of opiate toxicity. I cannot be certain what the cause of death was.
“I can only record an open verdict – the evidence doesn’t determine either the cause or the circumstances in which she died sometime over that weekend on Hampstead Heath.”
Verdict: Open |
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