Inquest hears tale of love, poison and murder

Victim's home was ransacked and money and jewellery missing, hearing is told

AN EXTRAORDINARY tale of love, exotic poison and murder abroad unfolded at an inquest in Newbury yesterday (Wednesday).

As 68-year-old former Hungerford man Basil ‘Bas' Grace lay dying in a Gambian clinic, he accused his new, Sierra Leonian wife of having slipped a drug into his drink.

His distraught former wife of 32 years, Susan Grace, told how he had been planning to return to her before his mysterious death.

His new wife, Marianna, disappeared shortly after administering the drink, possibly laced with an “obscure and unknown” poison, along with cash and gold belonging to Mr Grace, the hearing was told.

But the full truth may never be known because a Gambian doctor - who also claimed his patient was murdered - did not carry out vital toxicology tests before the body was embalmed, Berkshire Coroner Peter Bedford said.

Mrs Grace, of Chestnut Walk off Coldharbour Road, Hungerford, said that, 10 years ago, her husband announced he wanted a divorce as they returned from a holiday in Gambia.

She returned home to live with their three children while he returned to Gambia and married the woman identified only as Marianna during the inquest.

Mrs Grace said her former husband, with whom she shared a home in Honeyfields, Hungerford, was buying plots of land near his new wife's family and so she often flew out to bring “substantial” sums of his cash, stored in an English bank, to him.

Shortly before his mysterious death, she added, her husband had seemed “unusually quiet” and had told her he wanted a reconciliation.

But as she prepared to fly out to see him, things took a sinister turn.

Mrs Grace received text messages from her former husband claiming Marianna had given him a cup of tea which had a strange menthol taste. Moments later, the hearing was told, he collapsed.

When he regained consciousness two days later, his new wife was gone, the home had been ransacked, money and gold was missing and he had apparently been struck over the head by a weapon, the inquest heard.

Mr Grace, unable to speak or walk, crawled outside and managed to alert a friend who got him to the Bijilo Medical Centre in Serekunda, Mr Bedford was told.

There, he was treated by Dr Musa Touray, who later told coroner's officer Paul Beecroft that he believed his patient had been fatally poisoned by an unknown substance.

Mrs Grace said that her former husband texted her, begging her to fly out immediately because he feared he had been fatally poisoned.

Before she could board the plane, she said, she was told he had died - two weeks after drinking the mysterious substance.

Mrs Grace said that she later found his home ransacked and his possessions, including gold jewellery, gone.

She subsequently alerted Newbury CID but, the inquest heard, no toxicology tests had been done and the body had been embalmed, ruling out searching for a possible “obscure and unknown substance.”

Mr Bedford said the cause of death given - “cardiorespiratory arrest due to unspecified etiology” - was “as vague as it's possible to be.”

Recording an open verdict, he said he was unable to rule Mr Grace had been murdered and added: “There are more questions than answers. Key pieces of evidence and information are unavailable.”

Mr Grace was a self-employed bricklayer. Mrs Grace said after the hearing: “Everyone in Hungerford knew him. He loved his country and western music and was a keen fisherman.”