A mum-of-three took her own life after an argument with her estranged husband, an inquest has concluded. Lauren Murray, 38, was found unresponsive in her Oldham home in June 2020 by her dad with her phone showing she had been rowing with her husband.
An inquest into her death concluded yesterday (January 3) at Rochdale Coroners' Court after a three day hearing in December last year. At that hearing the court heard that Lauren was found unresponsive at her home in Fairway Road, Oldham, on June 6 2020, and that she had been in contact with husband Anthony Murray, who she was separated from but had recently spoken with, in the early hours of that morning and the previous night.
Notifications found on Lauren’s phone by police after Lauren’s death also appeared to show threatening messages allegedly from Mr Murray, but during the course of the inquest Greater Manchester Police (GMP) said there is not sufficient evidence to charge him with any crimes in connection with her death. At the hearing Lauren was described by family as a "beautiful soul" with an "infectious personality".
The inquest concluded that in the early hours of June 6 2020 Lauren "undertook the act whilst experiencing a heightened level of distress and under the influence of alcohol," Coroner Catherine McKenna recorded. "It is more likely than not to have been an impulsive act which, at the time it was taken, was done with the intent of ending her life," she added.
In December, the court heard that Lauren and Mr Murray were married in 2016, a few months after her relationship with the father of her children, who cannot be named for legal reasons, ended. She started to report incidents of domestic abuse a short time after they got wed.
In July 2017, Lauren started seeing a domestic abuse support worker and the inquest heard of incidents in the years leading up to her death, including overdoses, that were of concern to her family. In August 2019, Lauren started divorce proceedings and in a letter to her solicitor she wrote: “I would like to stress how important it is for me to get divorced from Anthony and I need my children back in my life. I was stuck in a spiral of control by him - each time I went back I would lose access to seeing the children”.
However, during an appointment with Ms Considine in February 2020, Lauren disclosed that she recently spent the night with Mr Murray and had been speaking to him on WhatsApp. Mr Murray claimed that on June 5 he visited Lauren to bring her a TV and some makeup, before staying for a bottle of wine.
That evening, a number of phone calls were made between Mr Murray and Lauren. He told police that they got into an argument and blamed it on her being “paranoid” and believing that he had another woman at his house.
The last call from Lauren’s phone to Mr Murray was at 12.30am on June 6 and he attempted to make four further calls between 1.10am and 1.26am but these were all between zero and two seconds in length so may not have connected, DI Howard said. Between 1am and 1.30am, two emails were sent from Mr Murray to Lauren’s phone. In one he wrote “Watch Facebook tomorrow you” and in the other he threatened to send videos “where you don’t want them getting sent to”.
Ms McKenna gave a conclusion of suicide.
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