Couple who died at Egyptian resort stayed next to room fumigated for bedbugs
A British couple who died at an Egyptian resort under mysterious circumstances were staying in a hotel room next door to one that had been fumigated hours earlier with chemicals to kill bedbugs, according to a report.
John Cooper, 69, and his wife, Susan, 63, died Aug. 21, 2018, while on vacation at the Steigenberger Aqua Magic Hotel in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Hurghada.
Their deaths prompted travel company Thomas Cook to evacuate 300 guests from the hotel as a precaution.
The couple’s daughter, Kelly Ormerod, has said she was suspicious because her parents had been in perfect health before the trip — and she believed “something in that room” killed them.
A preliminary expert report suggested neither carbon monoxide poisoning nor food poisoning claimed their lives, but cited possible exposure to an “infectious biological agent or toxic chemicals,” the Guardian reported.
But Dominik Bibi, a German tourist, said in a statement during an inquest that he reported a bedbug infestation in the room next door to the Coopers, according to the outlet.
The room was treated with Lambda, a synthetic insecticide used for pest control — the day before the Coopers, from Burnley, Lancashire, fell ill and died.
The two rooms had an adjoining door that was kept locked.
The Coopers had been traveling with Ormerod, their three grandchildren and friends, the Guardian reported. Ormerod’s daughter, Molly, then aged 12, was staying on a single bed in the couple’s room and had complained of a “yeasty smell.”
At 1 a.m., John Cooper said Molly was feeling ill and he took her to her mom’s room on the upper floor.
In the morning, Ormerod went to check on her parents and found them very sick.
“He just literally slumped and sat on the corner of the bed and said, ‘I’m really not well’,” Ormerod told the hearing about her dad, adding that her mom was “groaning” in bed with vomit in her hair and around the room.
Two doctors who were called were in “panic mode” while John Cooper struggled to breathe.
“His eyes kind of … a glazed, staring look,” Ormerod said, tearfully, according to the outlet.
John Cooper was declared dead at the scene after CPR was administered, while Susan died later at a hospital.
Bibi, the German guest, told the hearing that he noticed “a funny smell, like that of mold or damp” in the next-door room, where his mother-in-law was staying.
“There was a lot of bedbugs in the bed and under it,” he said, adding that a hotel worker and night manager apologized before taking his mother-in-law to another room down the hall.
Bibi said he later saw a worker with a pesticide canister he assumed was being used to kill the bedbugs.
He said masking tape was used to seal the room and the door, but he added in the statement: “I would not say the job was very professional.”
Besides the deaths of the couple, it also emerged at the time that 13 other hotel guests had food poisoning. The hotel told The Associated Press in 2018 that there was no increased level of illness there and attributed the couple’s deaths to “natural causes.”
Prosecutors in Egypt had dismissed speculation that toxic fumes in the Coopers’ room killed the couple. An official inspection of the room found no harmful leaks, they said.
An official statement by the Red Sea governorate said at the time that an initial medical examination of John showed he had suffered acute circulatory collapse and a sudden cardiac arrest. It said Susan later fainted and was rushed to a hospital.
The hearing was expected to continue Wednesday.
