Woman drowned in bathtub - US businesswoman found dead at Kingsway Hall hotel

Published: 23 July 2010
by JOSIE HINTON

AN American businesswoman drowned in the bath of a Covent Garden hotel while visiting London to attend a conference, an inquest heard.

Elizbieta Andros, 49, was found dead by a chambermaid who was cleaning the room in the Kingsway Hall hotel, in Great Queen Street, on April 17 this year.

Ms Andros, who was the vice-president of Avon Cosmetics and lived in New York, was due to go home two days before she died but had been delayed by the volcanic ash cloud in Iceland, which had grounded flights. 

Police found Ms Andros’s bags were packed and her jewellery had been carefully placed on a shelf near the bathtub. There was no evidence she had deliberately tried to harm herself.

Toxicology tests revealed no drugs or alcohol in her system, except anti-inflammatory medication she was taking. 

Recording an open, narrative, verdict coroner Dr Andrew Reid said: “The evidence is quite clear that she died from drowning and she must have become deeply unconscious not to have rescued herself.”