Inquest into best-selling author’s death opens

TRAGIC?Author Marsha Mehran was found dead in her Lecanvey apartment. ?Pic: Michael McLaughlin

Inquest into death of best-selling ‘Pomegranate Soup’ author opens


Neill O’Neill

AN inquest into the death of tragic international author Marsha Mehran (36) was opened and adjourned at Castlebar Courthouse last week, in order to allow her remains be repatriated to Australia.
During the short hearing, the coroner for South Mayo, John O’Dwyer, was informed by the last person to communicate with Ms Mehran, estate agent Teresa Walsh, that the deceased had informed her that she had been vomiting for several days. That was on April 12 this year.
Ms Mehran’s remains were discovered by Ms Walsh on Wednesday, April 30, in her rented accommodation on the Pier Road in Lecanvey, between Westport and Louisburgh. Gardaí believed there was nothing suspicious about her death. It was also reported that Ms Mehran may have been dead for up to a week before her remains were discovered and it is understood that she had been living a reclusive life.
First contact
In her statement, Teresa Walsh outlined that she had first been contacted by Ms Mehran - who was born in Tehran, Iran, in November 1977 - in January this year, and that this was in relation to letting a property on Pier Road in Lecanvey. Ms Mehran was happy with the house and moved in. She was contactable by phone and text.
Teresa Walsh had tried to contact Ms Mehran on April 10 and 11, but got no reply, but on April 12 she did respond to say she had been vomiting a lot and would come back to her again in relation to the house, as she was still feeling ‘pretty sick’. She did not respond when asked by Ms Walsh if she needed a doctor or if there was anything else she could do to help her. This was the last contact anybody had with Ms Mehran.
Between April 12 and 27, several attempts to contact Ms Mehran brought no reply and on Monday, April 28, Teresa Walsh went to the house on Pier Road around 10pm and saw lights on but no sign of life. She called again the following day but the situation was the exact same.

No sign of movement
On Wednesday, April 30, Ms Walsh called to the house at 7am and again saw no sign of any movement. She did not wish to enter the house as it was early in the morning and did not want to startle Ms Mehran, so she returned at 12.30pm that afternoon and after banging on the windows, let herself inside, where she found Ms Mehran, lying face down on the floor of the bedroom.
Ms Walsh called Gardaí and later identified the body to Garda John Boyle. She noted that the front and back doors were locked, that no windows were open and that the house was messy. It is thought Ms Mehran, an international best-selling author, was working on a new novel, and when she was writing, she became deeply focused on her work.
Her best-selling novel ‘Pomegranate Soup’ (2005) has been translated into 15 languages and published in over 20 countries. She was due to release a new work, ‘The Margaret Thatcher School of Beauty’, which was set in Buenos Aires in Argentina (to where her family fled from the Islamic Revolution in Iran and where she spent her formative years) during the Falklands War, later this year.
Her remains were to be cremated in recent days and flown to Australia, where her parents now live, for burial. Her father was present at the inquest, as was her former husband, Christopher Collins, a Mayo native, whom she married and moved to the area with.
It was at this time that Ms Mehran fell in love with the west coast of Mayo, and the area around Croagh Patrick in particular. Mr Collins was also present at last week’s inquest.
A full inquest will follow at a later date, when further investigations are complete.
The results of toxicology tests are pending, but the pathologist believes that Ms Mehran had been deceased for at least a week before her remains were discovered on April 30.
Last week’s preliminary inquest was conducted to allow for her death to be registered and her remains repatriated.