Ellena Pierre had taken a cocktail of controlled drugs, whose provenance remains surrounded by mystery.
None had been prescribed to her and no trace of them was found in her room.
Her boyfriend, who discovered her body, was arrested on suspicion of murder after paramedics described his behaviour as “odd”, but was later cleared of any wrongdoing.
An inquest at East London Coroner’s Court, Walthamstow, heard Ellena, a 25-year-old NHS worker from Gloucester Place, Atherton, had taken “abusive” doses of some of the drugs.
But none of the drugs were found in her hotel room and her parents told coroner Nadia Persaud they found no evidence of them in her home either.
Ellena was staying at the Prince Regent Hotel, near the ExCeL in Custom House, with her boyfriend Mahmood Shaikh, who worked for the hotel’s owner as an IT contractor.
Mr Shaikh testified last Monday (March 10) that he had seen Ellena asleep and snoring at around 7am on February 28, 2024, and fallen asleep beside her.
He said that, when he awoke around five hours later, “I was trying to wake her up because we were supposed to go out that day and she wasn’t responding.”
He said he mistakenly dialled 111 instead of 999 because he was “panicking” and pleaded for paramedics to come and revive her.
A post-mortem examination confirmed he had been attempting CPR as he called for help.
But paramedics found rigor mortis – the stiffening of Ellena’s body – had already set in, suggesting she had been dead for some time.
They wrote in their notes that Mr Shaikh was “covered in profuse sweating however not crying”.
He was recorded as “answering questions appropriately” but “not making or maintaining eye contact” and “behaving in an odd manner”.
Police arrested him and raided his home but found no trace of the drugs that killed Ellena.
She had taken potentially lethal doses of opioids and a high dose of an anxiety medication as well as therapeutic doses of insomnia drugs and a therapeutic level of anxiety medication.
Mr Shaikh testified he and Ellena had been seeing one another for years but only officially became an item in September 2023.
But he said the relationship was strained as Ellena suffered from anxiety and often “spammed” him with messages.
“She had a fear that I would leave her,” he said.
They feared he was “controlling” and “wanted her to obey him”.
“We often heard her say, ‘I will do whatever you want’, to him,” wrote her father Christopher.
“We are concerned that if he could control Ellena about other things and get her to do what he wanted, he could also control her and get her to take drugs.”
But Mr Shaikh said while there had been a “submissive and dominant” roleplaying element to their relationship, it was just “play”.
“If there was something she did not want to do, she would not do it,” he testified.
“She wasn’t the type of person who would be controlled like that and everything we did within the dynamic was discussed beforehand.
“I was not aware she was taking any drugs. I did not tell her to take any drugs. I did not sell her any drugs. I did not tell her to buy any drugs.”
Ellena’s parents told Mrs Persaud they learned after Ellena died that she had been in debt.
Det Sgt David Chitty said police found she had taken out two life insurance policies – one in June 2023 and one on February 17, 2024.
The latter was activated on February 27. Ellena died on February 28.
Neither policy named Mr Shaikh as a beneficiary. The money would have gone to her parents.
A pathologist found no evidence of trauma or injury. Police ultimately ruled her death non-suspicious.
“I don’t believe it was suicide,” Mr Shaikh testified. “I do believe that she misjudged the amount of drugs she took.”
Coroner Nadia Persaud ruled Ellena had died a drug-related death.
“There is no evidence that Miss Pierre was forced to take the combination of drugs and no evidence that she intended to bring about her death,” she said.
