Peaches Geldof overdosed on high-quality heroin, coroner says

Peaches Geldof overdosed on high-quality heroin, a British coroner ruled Wednesday, concluding an inquest into her April death.

Testimony given in May had already indicated that heroin “played a role” in the death of the 25-year-old socialite, writer, TV personality and mother of two, but the balance of the inquest uncovered more specifics, the Associated Press reported.

Geldof, a heroin addict who had been on methadone for more than two years in an effort to kick the drug, began using heroin again in February and had hidden drugs in their house, husband Thomas Cohen told the inquest.

Nearly 7 grams of heroin and almost 90 used and unused syringes were found in the home, the BBC reported. Testing revealed the heroin to be more than twice as pure as that typically purchased on the street.

“Deaths commonly occur in people who have previously been tolerant and have returned to using heroin,” a forensic scientist testified, noting that heroin tolerance drops off quickly after users get off the drug.

Codeine, methadone and morphine were also found in Geldof’s system, and there were puncture marks on her arms and legs, a pathologist told the inquest.

Peaches Geldof’s father is Live Aid founder and former Boomtown Rats frontman Bob Geldof, who said in April that he was “beyond pain” after his daughter’s death.

Cohen found his wife slumped over on the bed after he couldn’t get her on the phone while he was out of town with their son Astala, 2. The couple’s younger son, 1-year-old Phaedra, was in the house, near London, with his mom when she died.

Peaches’ mother, writer and TV presenter Paula Yates, died of a heroin overdose when her daughter was only 11.

“It’s said that the death of Peaches Geldof-Cohen is history repeating itself, but this is not entirely so,” the coroner said Wednesday, according to the AP. “By November last year she had ceased to take heroin as a result of the considerable treatment and counseling that she had received.

“This was a significant achievement for her, but for reasons we will never know, prior to her death she returned to taking heroin.”

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