Rachel to be exhumed

The body of heroin addict Rachel Whitear is to be exhumed by police, it was announced today.

She died from an apparent heroin overdose, but detectives decided the 21-year-old's grave will be dug up after new doubts emerged as to the cause of her death.

Photographs of her corpse - in a kneeling position on the floor of a bedsit, still grasping a syringe - shocked the world after her parents agreed to their release.

The pictures of the student's body in Exmouth, Devon, were used in a video warning schoolchildren of the dangers of drugs.

Rachel, from Withington, near Hereford, was thought to have taken a fatal overdose in May 2000, but a fresh inquiry was launched last year after her family complained about the handling of the original investigation, which was carried out by Devon and Cornwall police.

An inquest found that the amount of heroin in her body was not sufficient to kill her and an open verdict was recorded.

The new inquiry by detectives from Wiltshire Police has found that basic errors were made in the original investigation.

One criticism was that police failed to order a post-mortem on the body, a crucial step when dealing with a suspicious death. There were also criticisms of how Rachel's body was returned for burial before toxicology tests had been completed.

Detective Chief Superintendent Paul Howlett, of Wiltshire Police, said today they were keeping an open mind about the inquiry but he added: "At this stage there is no direct evidence indicating the involvement of a third party."

He said the exhumation would allow fresh toxicology tests which could give new information on the quantity of drugs in Rachel's system.

He was joined at a press conference in Hereford by Rachel's mother and stepfather, Pauline and Mick Holcroft. Mrs Holcroft said the exhumation could open the way for a second inquest.

Rachel's boyfriend Luke Fitzgerald, 29, was arrested last year on suspicion of manslaughter. He was held with another man but both were later released without charge.

Detectives are trying to establish if Rachel was alone when she died and whether someone else administered the injection. Mr Howlett said tests are still being carried out on the syringe.

Mrs Holcroft said today: "We would have believed that in the condition Rachel was found, a post-mortem would have been held as a matter of course. We were startled it was not."

Last month police said they had travelled to Greece to interview Rachel's former drugs counsellor, one of the last people to see her alive.