Islington Tribune - by CHARLOTTE CHAMBERS Published:12 December 2008
Husband died after collapsing at home
A CAB driver died after collapsing in his living room, an inquest heard on Tuesday. Robert Emerick’s death came a month before his 40th birthday.
A St Pancras inquest heard that Mr Emerick had struggled with crack cocaine addiction in his youth and had recently relapsed after spending years off drugs.
The inquest on Tuesday was told that he and his wife had plans to move from their Islington home.
Its address was not given in court. “They were excited and happy at this time in their lives,” coroner’s officer Shir Duff said.
Mr Emerick’s teaching assistant wife found him collapsed after she was wakened by a loud crash in the middle of the night.
Police found “drug paraphernalia” and alcohol beside him but pathologists discovered nothing in his blood.
The possibility that his heart had sustained scarring from previous addictions was considered at the inquest but coroner Dr Andrew Reid could not determine what killed Mr Emerick and returned an open verdict.