In 2018, the management of the Aqua Magic Hotel in the Hurghada resort of Egypt where John and Susan Cooper, 69 and 63, were staying with their daughter and three grandchildren, told The Associated Press that their deaths, which occurred within hours of each other on Aug. 21 that year, were due to "natural causes." Five years later, a document leaked by the BBC suggests an entirely different narrative.
This week, the British website had access to an investigation report in which a possible exposure to "infectious biological agents or toxic chemicals" is mentioned. At a hearing, James Adeley, a forensic pathologist, said the couple had been "poisoned". And this by products used by the hotel to disinfect the room next to theirs, which is infested with bed bugs. In the report, the German tourist, to whom this room had been assigned, testifies: "When I entered, I immediately smelled a strange smell, like mold or damp (...) There were a lot of bugs in the bed and on the bed."
John and Susan Cooper. Facebook screenshot
According to the German tourist, the hotel staff cleaned his room using a three- or four-liter bottle of insecticide. The door was then "sealed" with thick tape. "You can't say that the work was very professional," says the German. He was rehoused. Not the Coopers who spent the night in the room next to the unhealthy room. The next day, their daughter, Kelly Ormerod, found her parents in a pitiful state, sick and very weak. John Cooper died in the bedroom. Susan Cooper in the hospital, a few hours later.
After the hearing, Kelly Ormerod, the couple's daughter, said she "took some comfort in finally getting the answers" she had been waiting for for five years.