Los Angeles: Late model and TV journalist Peaches Geldof died of heroin overdose, said a coroner.
According to theguardian.com, Geldof had been receiving treatment for heroin addiction for the past two-and-a-half-year, and had been taking the substitute drug methadone. She relapsed and began taking the class A drug again two months before she died, the inquest heard.
The inquest, held in Gravesend, Kent, was told that there was codeine, methadone and morphine in Geldof's blood, the latter coming from heroin, and that the levels were within the fatal range.
On the bed next to where she was found dead on 7 April was "a small clear coloured cap thought to have come from a syringe" and a pair of knotted black tights. Under the bed was "a dessert spoon … with visible burn marks on the underside and a small amount of a brown residue".
Large quantities of "importation quality heroin" were also found.
The coroner noted that the drugs were 61 percent pure, considerably higher than the usual 25 percent of street-grade heroin, making it more dangerous, particularly for someone whose tolerance was low.
Roger Hatch, the coroner, concluded that the cause of the 25-year-old's death was opiate intoxication.
