Housewife's body 'could have been undiscovered on Hampstead Heath for a month'

Wednesday October 13, 2010

By JOSIE HINTON

A MOTHER of two found dead in undergrowth on Hampstead Heath could have been there for up to a month before she was discovered, an inquest heard.

The body of housewife Maria Bukreedan was found by a couple walking near the men's pond on Parliament Hill on June 26. The 56-year-old, who suffered from schizophrenia and needed to take regular medication, had been missing for a month.

St Pancras Coroner's Court heard on Tuesday that she was last seen when she left her home in Shaftesbury Road, Newham, at around 9am on May 26, to cash a cheque.

But it was not until around 11pm that night that her family realised she was missing.

Giving evidence at the hearing, her husband Anwar Bukreedan said: “I was working night shifts as a nurse so I woke up around 5pm and I saw my son lying on the settee and asked him where his mother was. He said he thought she could have gone out with my daughter, so we waited for her to come back. But when she eventually came home at about 11pm she said her mother wasn't with her. That's when we became worried and called the police.”

Spanish-born Mrs Bukreedan had left the house with nothing but some cash. She didn't carry a mobile phone. The court heard she was in regular contact with mental health services in Newham and had been particularly unwell in recent months. She spent a month in hospital  in January after she stopped eating. But following a change in medication, she seemed to be improving and was discharged in February. She spent two months visiting family in Spain, but during the trip she went missing on two separate occasions when she had to be brought home by police, the court heard.

She had been back in London for just three days before she went missing from the home she shared with her husband, 21-year-old son and 18-year-old daughter.
Police launched an appeal for witnesses in an attempt to track her final movements, but no-one came forward with any sightings.

Mrs Bukreedan's body was identified on July 6, but a post-mortem was unable to establish the cause of her death due to the length of time before she was found. DI Gary Randall told the court: “This was a very different case because the normal ways of tracking people – through mobile phone and oyster card usage – cold not be used here.”

Recording an open verdict, coroner Dr Andrew Reid said: “There is some suggestion she had been dead for some time when she was found. The cause of her death is unascertained.”