The death of Peaches Geldof, the daughter of musician and Band Aid founder Bob Geldof, was drugs-related, a coroner ruled on Wednesday.
The 25-year-old socialite died at her family home in Kent, southeast England, in April while alone with one of her two young sons.
In May, forensic tests found heroin in her system and puncture wounds on her arms.
Detective Chief Inspector Paul Fotheringham, who gave evidence at an inquest in Gravesend, Kent, on Wednesday said in a statement that drugs equipment had been found near the body.
He said Geldof had recently stopped taking heroin after an addiction of several years, although witnesses suspected that she had started taking drugs again in February.
A search of the house had revealed a bag containing 61 percent pure heroin, more than double the average purity of street heroin. Geldof’s blood contained a high level of heroin, along with traces of codeine, methadone and morphine.
Investigations into who supplied the heroin were continuing, he said, although there had been no arrests so far.
Forensic scientist Emma Harris, who had been involved in examining the body, said: “Tolerance to heroin ... appears to be lost fairly rapidly when users cease to use the drug, and deaths commonly occur in people who have previously been tolerant and have returned to using heroin.”
Geldof - daughter of Live Aid organizer Bob Geldof - was a heroin addict and had been taking the drug substitute methadone for more than two years in a bid to stay free of the opiate, the inquest heard. Inquests are held in Britain to determine the facts in sudden, violent or unexplained deaths.
The coroner’s conclusion is a sad echo of the life of Geldof’s mother, Paula Yates, who died of a heroin overdose when Peaches was 11.
Her husband, Thomas Cohen, told the hearing that Geldof had started using heroin again in February. He said he had seen her flushing drugs she had hidden in the loft of their home down the toilet.
Cohen found her body in a spare bedroom of their home in Wrotham, Kent on the afternoon of Monday, April 7, when he returned from a weekend away with the couple’s 2-year-old son, Astala. Their younger son, 1-year-old Phaedra, was in the house with his mother.
“It’s said that the death of Peaches Geldof-Cohen is history repeating itself, but this not entirely so,” coroner Roger Hatch said.
“By November last year she had ceased to take heroin as a result of the considerable treatment and counselling that she had received.
“This was a significant achievement for her, but for reasons we will never know prior to her death she returned to taking heroin.”
At the time of her death she was a columnist for Mother & Baby magazine. In her last piece, under the headline “Being a mum is the best thing in my life”, she wrote she was “happier than ever”.
