Terence Murrell, 36, was found dead in the bedroom of his £600k cottage in the picturesque Home Counties village of Ashampstead.
He had taken a variety of illicit and prescription drugs including Cocaine and Tapentadol, an opioid.
An inquest in writing into his death revealed Mr Murrell had been known to take around 1.5g of cocaine each day and abused steroids.
Mr Murrell had hit the headlines in 2019 after he fled to Bali to evade a court case where he was being prosecuted for illegally dealing steroids in North Wales, for which he was sentenced to 37 months in his absence.
Reading Coroner’s Court was informed that Mr Murrell was ultimately detained in Cambodia and was extradited to the UK to serve the remainder of his sentence here.
He was released from prison in 2022, but in June last year his probation service referred him to a drug and alcohol treatment service because he felt he could not get control of his substance misuse.
Hannah Godfrey, the area coroner for Berkshire, wrote: “Mr Murrell’s family remember him with great love, but they recall that in the last few months of his life he shut himself away, was difficult to communicate with and visits reduced. They were aware of his use of Cocaine, and they offered help but he did not accept it.”
The coroner wrote that on 7 December last year, Mr Murrell was taken to A&E at the Royal Berkshire Hospital because his partner found him with a knife to his own throat, after having cocaine and magic mushrooms.
His records disclosed two previous suicide attempts.
On 4 January, when speaking to his partner on the phone, Mr Murrell had threatened to take cocaine.
The following day when she went to his house at midday she found the curtains drawn and he did not answer. Concerned, she returned that evening, and broke in, finding him dead in an upstairs bedroom.
Police found a substance they believed to be cocaine near his body, together with his wallet and watch.
The coroner said she could not conclude Mr Murrell died of suicide, adding he left no final note or message.
“Mr Murrell had no history of a deliberate suicidal drug overdose, but he did have a history of high daily drug use”, Ms Godfrey said.
“I find the levels of drugs identified in the toxicology report are not so high as to prove, on their own, a suicidal intent in the context of a user known to take 1.5g of cocaine daily who would have had a high tolerance.”
Ms Godfrey concluded Mr Murrell died of ‘drug toxicity’, adding: “His intentions when taking the drugs he ingested are unclear”.
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