British woman’s suicide: Waiting for Covid-19 test result for conducting autopsy examination

KOLLAM: The autopsy of a British woman who allegedly jumped to her death from a multi-storey building at Amrithanandamayi Matt at Valkikkavu in Kollam district on Wednesday night will be held only after her Covid test result is available.
Karunagappally police told TOI that they brought the body of Steffade Fiona, 45, for autopsy at Medical College Hospital, Thiruvananthapuram, on Thursday morning, but the doctors said they will conduct the examination only after the Covid test result is available.
Fiona, a native of London, was mentally disturbed over the delay caused to her return journey, matt sources said. Around 10am on Thursday, she became restless and tried to commit suicide by jumping into nearby backwaters. Police personnel posted at the matt came to her rescue and brought her back to the ashram. By 8.30pm, she escaped the eyes of the occupants who had been entrusted to take care of her and jumped from the seventh floor of a building.
It was on January 16 that Fiona reached the matt. Arriving in Kerala on a tourist visit, she got stuck up in the ashram during the lockdown. She got distressed as her efforts to go back to her country did not succeed.
“As she started showing suicide tendency, we informed police and her sister in London and British consulate in Chennai. Her sister had offered her to bring her back to her native place via Scotland. But unfortunately, in the meantime, jumped to death,” Swami Sharanamrita Chaithanya of the matt said.
He said there were around 1,200 foreign tourists who had got stuck up at the matt after the lock down. “Still there are around 400 foreigners who came to the Ashram as tourists. They are not devotees or occupants. They had nowhere to go during the lockdown and they were allowed to stay back through the last three-and-a-half months,” he said.
He said it was the British consulate and her relatives to decide on bringing Fiona’s body back to her country.