Hotel manager committed suicide after row over face mask
A young hotel manager hanged herself from a tree after a row with her housemate, an inquest heard.
The body of Mercedes Harrison, aged 21, was found by an early morning dog walker in Nothe Fort Gardens in Weymouth, Dorset, on March 27.
She worked at the Bourneville Hotel in Weymouth, where she had trained as a manager. She had worked there since July 2016.
An inquest in Bourneville heard she had led a troubled life, having lost her mother at an early age in a car crash on the M25. She then went to live with her father in the Philippines, but when he divorced his second wife they returned to the UK but as sh didn’t have a visa she was forced to live in a detention centre as an illegal immigrant.
She had later been fostered, before moving to Scotland with a boyfriend and then back to Dorset.
Her flatmate Bree Taylor Shaw told the inquest they had argued the night before her death about a face mask she had taken from Mercedes’ room. She heard Mercedes go out at around 2am, and later that day she found suicide notes in her room.
Dorset coroner Rachael Griffin said: "The fact she took herself to a relatively secluded area indicates she did not want to be found. She also produced notes which both police and her friends interpreted as notes of intention. I am therefore satisfied she died by suicide."
Linsey McNeill
Editor Linsey McNeill has been writing about travel for more than three decades. Bylines include The Times, Telegraph, Observer, Guardian and Which? plus the South China Morning Post. She also shares insider tips on thetraveljournalist.co.uk
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