Police reopen inquiries into drug death used in video

Police have reopened inquiries into the death of the 21-year-old student Rachel Whitear because she did not die of a heroin overdose as previously thought.

Devon and Cornwall Police have announced that a detective chief superintendent will review the circumstances surrounding her death.

Pressure has been mounting on police to open a new inquiry after blood tests on Ms Whitear's body showed insufficient levels of the drug to cause her death. Previously unpublished reports of the inquest into her death in 2000 also showed that the coroner declared the matter to be a mystery.

Ms Whitear's life story was highlighted last year when it was used as the basis for a video warning schoolchildren on the dangers of heroin. A police photograph of her body hunched over and holding an empty syringe was incorporated to shock viewers. The assumption was that she had died of an overdose.

Police came to the same conclusion after they were called to the bedsit in Exmouth, Devon, where she was found and so no post-mortem examination was done.

Rachel's former boyfriend, Luke Fitzgerald, from whom she had split the day before her death, is now known to have lied to police about his contact with her in her last hours. He initially gave a statement saying he had not seen her on the day she died, but later he admitted seeking her out to ask for money.

Yesterday Ms Whitear's mother, Pauline Holcroft, said: "There are several questions that need to be answered. We were never happy with the inquest which was held seven months after her death and produced an open verdict.

"The blood tests were inconsistent and some of the statements did not tie up with the events around Rachel's death. Initially we all believed it was a straightforward overdose of heroin. She had been an addict but at the time she died she was in contact with me. I had seen her two weeks before and she was not using.

"We are going to be writing to the Devon and Cornwall Police to ask if the review may be carried out by a different police force to get a fresh view."

Assistant Chief Constable Steve Pearce, of Devon and Cornwall Police, said: "Following concerns raised by the family, we will be reviewing the investigation. We cannot say if the body will be exhumed."