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Thread: Cyanide Suicide Pact: couple found dead in Edinburgh luxury hotel

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    Cyanide Suicide Pact: couple found dead in Edinburgh luxury hotel

    Couple found dead after 'chemical incident' in luxury Edinburgh hotel

    Emergency services evacuated part of The Scotsman Hotel as teams in protective hazardous material suits investigated room following possible suicide



    A couple has been found dead after what has been described as a "chemical incident" in a room at a 5-star hotel in Edinburgh.

    The bodies of a man and a woman were discovered by staff on the sixth floor of the luxury Scotsman Hotel at around 12.15pm, after which fire services evacuated rooms, police cordoned off the entrance and emergency chemical response teams wearing protective "hazmat" suits were seen entering the building.

    No one else was harmed, and the police are not treating it as a criminal investigation. A spokesman said: "Inquiries are at an early stage and the deaths are being treated as unexplained at this time."

    Detectives are not ruling out suicide as an explanation. They said that there was no ongoing risk to other guests or staff at the hotel.

    The incident comes just the day before the beginning of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival tomorrow and the city is very busy, with most hotel rooms occupied.

    Among those evacuated were guests at a wedding reception taking place inside the hotel, which describes itself as one of Scotland?s finest and opened in 2001 when the Scotsman newspaper moved to new premises.

    American tourist Betty Cuniberti, from San Francisco, told STV that she was in her room on the sixth floor when the fire alarm went off.

    She said: "There was a very loud bang on the door and when I opened it it was a fireman and somebody from the hotel saying it was being evacuated. They told me it was safe to take the elevator but I wasn't happy to do that so I took the stairs.

    I feel just terribly about what's happened. It's really tragic."

    Norma and Derek Cameron, visiting from Kelso in the Scottish Borders to watch the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo, told the Associated Press they had not been allowed to return to their room on the eighth floor.

    Mrs Cameron, 71, said: "We wanted to get in and get refreshed. The police weren't giving anything away. They just said that the hotel had been closed and everyone evacuated.

    It's horrible to think about. I'm not sure I want to go back in now."

    Speaking at the scene, Chief Inspector Murray Dykes stressed that the hotel is now safe. He said the "hefty response" from chemicals teams was no more than an indication that "full precautions" were being taken.


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    This is the scene I arrived at yesterday afternoon. I work just around the corner from this.

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    Chemical deaths: Post-mortem examinations will be carried out on couple found dead in Edinburgh hotel

    Post-mortem examinations will be carried out on the bodies of a man and woman found dead at a luxury hotel in a suspected chemical incident.

    Police said the bodies had been removed from the five-star Scotsman Hotel in Edinburgh, where they were discovered at lunchtime on Thursday.

    The sixth floor had to be evacuated and a large cordon was erected outside the hotel entrance in North Bridge following the discovery of the bodies by staff. Firefighters wore protective clothing such as gas-tight suits and breathing apparatus whilst they responded on the scene.

    A chemical incident response was mobilised by the fire service, which saw around 25 firefighters, three pumps and a support crew report to emergency calls at the scene.

    Police Scotland are treating the deaths as unexplained.

    A statement said: "Early inquiries indicate that this is a chemical-related incident. However, both bodies will undergo forensic analysis.

    Scotland Fire and Rescue carried out robust examination of the hotel room and are satisfied the deaths were isolated to the room only.

    There was, and is, no risk to hotel guests, staff or members of the public in the area surrounding the premises.

    All chemical material of interest to this investigation has now been removed from the hotel."

    The Scotsman Hotel is located on the cusp of the historic Royal Mile and a short distance from Princes Street, the city's main shopping thoroughfare.

    Thousands of performers and tourists are currently flocking to Scotland's capital for the Fringe Festival, which begins on Friday

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    One lead being pursued is that the pair each took deadly cyanide to end their own lives in a bedroom of the five-star Scotsman hotel.

    The man and a woman, who are believed to have been from Russia or eastern Europe, were found at 12.15pm on 1 August.

    Fire-fighters told guests on the sixth floor to get out of their rooms amid reports of a 'horrible smell.'

    A Scottish police spokesman refused to rule out cyanide in the couple's deaths. He said: "Whether or not this chemical has been digested or absorbed we don't know yet."

    Authorities have yet to reveal the names of the pair, whose bodies were removed from the imposing Scotsman hotel for forensic analysis.

    Suicide has not been ruled out at this time.

    According to the Herald Scotland, fire-fighters discovered the two victims lying in bed with an open container nearby.

    That might explain the smell which troubled other guests and led to police donning special gear to go inside.

    http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/articles/49...-edinburgh.htm

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    wants supermodel tits lulupop's Avatar
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    It sounds like it was a Hydrogen sulphide suicide rather than cyanide, that creates a rotten egg smell & you would definitely need hazmat to come & deal with it. Wouldn't cyanide be in pill form?
    If it was H2S I hope they did it in a sealed bathroom or something & taped a warning sign up, that stuff has been know to kill or injure people in other rooms if it's not sealed properly :/
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    I didn't read the article properly & saw this

    According to the Herald Scotland, fire-fighters discovered the two victims lying in bed with an open container nearby.

    That might explain the smell which troubled other guests and led to police donning special gear to go inside.
    I'd say it was H2S for sure, you would have to mix it in a big container, I'm surprised they did it in such a large room though.
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    Sorry for the multiple posts

    http://www.scotsman.com/news/scotlan...away-1-3025823

    A WOMAN found dead after a suspected chemical-related suicide lived only yards from the upmarket hotel where her body and that of a man were discovered.

    The Scotsman has learned the woman lived in a small one-bedroomed flat on the nearby Royal Mile in Edinburgh.

    Forensic teams were last night searching her property, which is around the corner from The Scotsman Hotel where the bodies were found in a sixth-floor suite on Thursday afternoon.

    Officers wearing protective suits entered the second-floor flat at World’s End Close on Friday afternoon.

    They had cordoned off access to the narrow passageway and were seen searching inside and outside the area. Neighbours told how they saw them remove mail and open all the windows of the property.

    Police have said the unexplained deaths were linked to a “chemical incident” and reports suggest the pair, both thought to be in their forties, took their own lives using home-made cyanide. Sources said both were believed to have come from Eastern Europe.

    There were also unconfirmed reports that a lengthy suicide note was found in the suite near to where the bodies were discovered at 12:15pm on Thursday.

    Neighbours told The Scotsman that an Eastern European woman had lived in the rented property for several years and her partner was there often.

    A neighbour, who asked not to be named, said he had not seen the woman for several days.

    “We first noticed officers around the close on Thursday but didn’t think too much of it until Friday, when about seven or eight people in white scene of crime suits arrived,” he said.

    “Another of my neighbours spoke to police and said they have opened all of the windows because they thought there was a gas inside the property. Police removed the mail as well.

    “We realised that something serious had obviously happened and we thought it was an odd coincidence after what happened at the hotel. Now we know it’s linked we’re obviously fairly shocked. I don’t know the woman well but she is in her forties and has a partner.

    “They were very quiet and kept to themselves. It’s a very strange story really and immensely sad. Booking into an expensive hotel just up the road and then doing what they did.”

    Fraser Millward, 32, from London, is staying in a rented flat for a festival show and said that officers cordoned off the area yesterday afternoon.

    “I saw about ten police officers gathered discussing things but they wouldn’t tell us anything. The officer I spoke to said there was nothing to worry about,” he said.

    Hotel guests were evacuated from several floors of the hotel – which was believed to have been full at the time – with many left waiting outside for more than seven hours.

    It is understood the pair had stayed at the hotel for several days and had been due to check out the day they were found.

    The pair are understood to have been discovered in bed and staff raised the alarm after finding what was described as an “unidentified substance” in the room.

    Fire crews wearing protective chemical-proof suits were seen going in and out of the building for most of the day and were understood to have been checking if there was a risk to the public as a result of the chemicals found in the room.

    A Police Scotland spokesman said: “Police in Edinburgh are carrying out inquiries at an address in the Royal Mile area as part of their ongoing investigation into the death of a man and woman at The Scotsman hotel. It would be inappropriate to comment further at this time.”

    Sources close to the investigation said it is thought the pair may have mixed two liquid substances to create a toxic vapour which led to their deaths and sparked the chemical response.

    Emergency services have been specially trained to respond to chemical suicides due to an increase of such instances in recent years.

    The Scotsman hotel is located on North Bridge close to the Royal Mile and a short distance from Princes Street.

    Sandra Didlake, 70, an American guest staying on the floor above where the deceased couple were found, said she noticed a “horrible smell”, coming through the lift on Wednesday.

    “It was so bad that you couldn’t breathe. It was getting in our room. I said to my sister, ‘wouldn’t it be terrible if there was a dead body in a room?’,” she said.

    She lived in World’s End Close :/
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    Thanks for the update lulupop. That's so weird? Why not do it in your own flat then? Unless she had no choice? And yes, that's exactly what my partner said about the H2S!! Maybe cyanide made a better headline. I'm perplexed as to why they would choose a top Hotel, at this time of the year, knowing it would be chocka full of foreign tourists? Right enough, it is unbearable to try and walk to your home for the whole of August, if you live at World's End Cl, ose. It is wall to wall performers, tourists and Fringe folks. I work in Jackson's Close which is closer to The Scotsman than The Worlds End, and it's horrific to try to get through the crowds to my work. Maybe the couple just cracked, and planned some Fringe revenge? (j/k of course)

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    Maybe they wanted to have a nice last few days in luxury? I think if I knew I was going to snuff it, I'd use all my money & enjoy my last few days. Pretty selfish that they didn't think of others though.
    I don't know the area, I mentioned The Worlds End Close because it sounded pretty depressing lol. Actually the way you described it, it sounds quite entertaining! :)
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    I realized you were talking about the irony of the name after I posted.

    There's a pub named after the close that is associated with an unsolved double murder from the late seventies. The murders are known as 'The World's End Murders'.



    The World's End Murders is the colloquial name given to the murder of two teenage girls, Christine Eadie, 17, and Helen Scott, 17, in Edinburgh, in October 1977. The case is so named, because both victims were last seen alive leaving the World's End Pub in Edinburgh's Old Town. The only living person to stand trial accused of the murders, Angus Sinclair, was acquitted in 2007 in controversial circumstances.



    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World%2...ation_reopened

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    All these Close's run off the main thoroughfare of Edinburgh's Old Town, The Royal Mile (High Street). It runs from the Queen's summer home, Holyrood Palace, right up to Edinburgh Castle. During the Festival (Fringe) it looks like this:














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    Quote Originally Posted by lulupop View Post
    It sounds like it was a Hydrogen sulphide suicide rather than cyanide, that creates a rotten egg smell & you would definitely need hazmat to come & deal with it. Wouldn't cyanide be in pill form?
    If it was H2S I hope they did it in a sealed bathroom or something & taped a warning sign up, that stuff has been know to kill or injure people in other rooms if it's not sealed properly :/
    THE substance used in double death poisoning was home-made potassium cyanide.
    http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/sc...uicide-2123194

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    Revealed: Woman found dead in Scotsman hotel cyanide suicide pact cleared her flat of belongings before taking her life



    THE woman found dead in a cyanide suicide pact in an Edinburgh hotel cleared her nearby flat of all belongings and left a lengthy note before taking her own life.

    The extraordinary last few hours of the woman were being pieced together last night.

    It has emerged that the substance used in the Scotsman Hotel double suicide, which sparked a full scale chemical alert, was home made potassium cyanide.

    There was evidence helium and large amounts of painkillers were also used.

    And at the flat in World's End Close, off the Royal Mile, sources said the woman, in her 40s, had meticulously removed all of her belongings, even taking the curtains off the rail.

    Two notes identified "family problems" as the reason for the pact, according to sources.

    She and her *companion checked in to the Scotsman for a three-night stay and their *bodies were *discovered when they failed to check out.

    Detectives believe the *potassium *cyanide was made in the flat, having found traces during the search.

    The chemicals to make the poison can be combined using just a few beakers and a pot of boiling water.

    Police were last night trying to trace the pair's next of kin and are working on the theory they are Czech, Polish or Russian.



    A neighbour at the second-floor flat, which is located in a close next to the famous World's End pub, said: "There were a lot of police here on Thursday, removing stuff in evidence bags."

    "Some of them were wearing protective clothing. All we know is that a man and a woman stayed in the flat."

    "It's a rented flat with one bedroom ? the woman had been there for a few years and the man was seen there often too."

    "Most of the flats round here are rented out for the Festival at the moment."

    "The police took mail and other stuff away and opened the windows of the flat where the couple stayed. It?s obviously a terrible tragedy."

    The woman was last seen by neighbours on Wednesday. Police arrived at the flat around 2pm on Thursday, just an hour after the alarm was raised at the hotel.

    A source said: "It's quite clearly a very well-engineered, pre-meditated case whereby they have taken their own lives. Such *incidents are known to occur in hotels as those involved know they will be found. It?s terribly sad."

    They were discovered on the sixth floor of the hotel at 12.15pm on *Thursday.

    Central Edinburgh ground to a halt after *emergency services were called. The response team included the National Risk and *Resilience Department, a joint Scottish Government and Fire Service unit who respond to chemical, nuclear and *biological incidents.

    Firefighters wearing "gas-tight" suits and breathing apparatus entered the hotel, instructing stunned guests to leave.

    Guests were allowed to return to their rooms on Friday. A canister containing the helium gas was found in the room next to where the couple were found dead.

    The potassium *cyanide containers are understood to have been clearly marked as containing toxic *substances.

    Police said later there was "no evidence" to suggest a wider threat to the public.

    Post mortem examinations will be *carried out in due course.

    Police yesterday declined to name the pair.

    A spokesman said: "We are trying to trace next of kin."

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    Off-topic - I love Edinburgh, thanx for all those pix Poppy - I feel jealous now (I posted some stuff on Mary King's Close last week- tell me if I got anything wrong & I'll fix it).

    On-topic-

    http://www.heraldscotland.com/mobile...e2a5bbaed85f21

    'Suicide pact' woman lived near hotel

    Published on 5 August 2013 A WOMAN who took her life using cyanide in an apparent suicide pact reportedly lived just yards from the luxury Edinburgh hotel where her body was found. The woman, named locally as Daria Kuchan, was found dead at the Scotsman Hotel in North Bridge on Thursday along with a male companion. It was reported police combing her flat at World's End Close, off the Royal Mile, found Ms Kuchan - who was in her 40s - had removed all of her belongings before checking in to the hotel last Monday. A note is understood to have been found detailing family problems. Police are still trying to trace Ms Kuchan's relatives, who are believed to be Czech, Polish or Russian.

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