THE DEATH of a Liskeard woman, who fell ill just days after her wedding in India, remains a mystery.
More than four years after Charlotte Bending died the inquest into her death was finally held today.
The 24-year-old died while she was staying in Kurukshetra, a city in the northern Indian state of Haryana on September 8, 2008 – days after her wedding to Jitender Singh, 28.
She had travelled with her two children and intended to return to England weeks after the ceremony.
But Truro Coroners' Court heard how tests carried out in India claimed she died from asphyxiation as a result of aspiration – where she possibly choked on her own vomit.
However at her post mortem her organs were removed and the body embalmed before it was sent back to England for examination.
Pathologist Clive Holgate told the inquest that there were no signs of a struggle leading up to Ms Bending's death but questioned the conclusion of asphyxiation as there was no vomit found in her lungs.
Mr Holgate suggested the cause of death be recorded as unascertained.
After being questioned by the family, Mr Holgate and John Blake, a crime scene co-ordinator for Devon and Cornwall Police, said there were no signs of a violent or unnatural death.
"We have tried to make more enquiries but they have all come to absolutely nothing so far," Dr Emma Carlyon, Coroner For Cornwall, said, recording an open verdict.
A GP's report stated that Ms Bending was asthmatic and had an allergy to penicillin.
Her sister said she had almost died from being exposed to penicillin during the birth of her first child.
She added that Ms Bending had also been on steroids, which had made her put on weight, but before she went to India she dropped from a size 14-16 to a size 6-8.
Speaking at the proceedings, her family said that they will not be able to grieve until they know how she died.
"It was heartbreaking to know we had to bury her without her heart and brain."
"[After it happened], Jitender phoned me and kept saying she's dead and he was hysterical and kept saying they had arrested him and he was in a prison and he kept saying they are taking her organs," sister Karen Bending told the inquest.
"We just need to find out how she died or we can't grieve and we can't move on."
After her death, Ms Bending's two children - Gorkarak and Nasrullah - were stranded in India with Mr Singh, but are now in the care of Ms Bending's mother Sandra Hunter, in Liskeard.
