Mum-of-two was found dead in hotel room in Portugal after daughters raised the alarm when they couldn't get hold of holidaymaker

Hotel staff forced their way into the room at the request of her daughters when they could not get hold of their mum

An inquest into the death of Susan Sherman, 59, heard that she was holidaying alone in the city of Portimao, in the Algarve, when her family raised the alarm after she failed to respond to text messages and phone calls. At the family's request, staff at the hotel where Ms Sherman was staying broke into her room and found her unresponsive shortly before midnight on the evening of May 25, 2022.

An ambulance crew attended and confirmed she had passed away. The inquest held at Bolton coroners' court was attended by members of Ms Sherman's family, including her two grown-up daughters, Tina and Donna. Coroner Peter Sigee heard that Ms Sherman, of Clifton Road, Ashton, Bolton was a widow and had worked as a shop assistant for a period of 17 years. She was described as "healthy" and would walk to and from work every day.

The inquest was told that Ms Sherman would take two holidays a year, one of which would be in Portugal. On May 24, 2022, she had flown out to the Hotel Luar in Portimao. Mr Sigee was told that she preferred to take solo holidays because she enjoyed the freedom it gave her. Her family would make contact with her at least once a day, however on May 25 she failed to respond to repeated attempts to contact her. They became more concerned and contacted the hotel to check to see if she was all right. When staff entered her room, they found her lying unresponsive on the floor.

An investigation by Portuguese authorities found no signs of violence or disturbance in the room and no further action was taken. A post-mortem took place in Portugal before the body was repatriated to the UK. A second post-mortem was then carried out by consultant pathologist Dr David Barker at Wigan Infirmary.

Dr Barker told the inquest that his examination was hampered by the previous one in Portugal, but he confirmed its findings that the medical cause of death was a heart attack. The coroner, Mr Sigee, concluded that Ms Sherman had died from natural causes. He passed on his condolences to her family.