Toxic tea caused woman’s death

A WOMAN found dead in her Dublin apartment by her parents on Christmas Day died after drinking a tea made from toxic yew needles, an inquest has heard.

Grace Caulfield, aged 37, of Westgate Apartments, St Augustine Street, Dublin 8, was discovered dead in bed after her concerned parents, unable to gain access to her apartment, alerted gardaí.

They found the advertising executive in bed with no evidence of any disturbance.

She had been dead between eight and 30 hours, Dublin City Coroner’s Court heard.

Her last contact with her family was six days earlier, when she sent a text message to her brother David.

A postmortem provided no cause of death and no drugs and alcohol were detected in her system.

A subsequent analysis of Ms Caulfield’s blood and urine, however, tested positive for taxine b, a highly toxic substance found in the yew seed.

The screening was carried out after gardaí informed the coroner they had recovered containers of strange seeds at Ms Caulfield’s apartment, as well as a brown tea-like substance. Up to then, doctors were baffled as to the cause of death.

Taxine b, if ingested, can cause cardio-respiratory failure.

“There have been reports of death from cardio-respiratory failure occurring within one to eight hours of ingesting of yew tree material (from which taxine is obtained), or by ingesting tea brewed yew needles,” according to a report from a chemist at the State Laboratory, Dr Frances Mahon.

“The concentrations of taxine in Ms Caulfield’s blood are similar to those found in people considered to have died from taxine ingestion. However, there is very little information available as to the safe and toxic levels of this substance,” she said.

Pathologist Dr Tom Crotty told the inquest he has no previous experience of dealing with taxine toxicity.

A cause of death by taxine toxicity was recorded and the coroner, Dr Farrell, recorded an open verdict.

Although Ms Caulfield had left a last will and testament, the coroner said he could not say beyond a reasonable doubt that she had intended to take her life. There have been cases where animals have been poisoned after consuming yew seeds.