Published: 29 July, 2010
by JOSIE HINTON

AN American businesswoman accidentally drowned in the bath of a Holborn hotel while visiting London for a conference, an inquest has heard.

Elizbieta Andros, 49, was found dead by a chambermaid who was cleaning her room in the Kingsway Hall Hotel, in Great Queen Street, on April 17.

Ms Andros, who was vice-president of Avon Cosmetics and lived in New York, was in London on business. She had been due to go home two days before her body was found but was detained by the volcanic ash cloud, which grounded flights. 

Police found Ms Andros’s bags packed and jewellery carefully placed on a shelf near the bathtub. There was no evidence she had deliberately tried to harm herself, the St Pancras inquest heard.

A toxicology report revealed there were no drugs or alcohol in her system. The court heard the businesswoman’s husband told police she had a tendency to “work and work and work,” and forget to eat meals.

Recording an open narrative verdict, coroner Dr Andrew Reid said: “The evidence is quite clear she died from drowning and she must have become deeply unconscious not to have rescued herself. What caused her to be is not clear.”