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A CONCLUSION on a Hereford woman's shocking death has been reached by a coroner after a previous murder investigation was called off.

An inquest into the death of Charlotte Savage, known as Charlotte Holland, was opened after police decided to stop pursuing criminal lines of investigation.

Miss Holland died on July 17, 2022, aged just 20 after falling from a second-floor window at a house in Green Street, Hereford. A man was arrested on suspicion of murder but later released with the case dropped by police due to a lack of evidence.

Two years on from her death, after almost four hours of inquest proceedings, coroner Mark Bricknell found that Miss Holland died as a result of traumatic head, chest and spine injuries. There were also high levels of alcohol and cocaine in her blood.

But he was unable to confirm that the death was accidental, with a police officer saying at the inquest: “It’s really unclear what happened. We’ve tried to get as much information as possible. It’s very difficult. We can’t say whether anyone else had involvement or not. We don’t have the evidence.”

Reaching his narrative conclusion on October 16, Mr Bricknell said: "This is a particularly distressing inquest for all parties. She may have fallen, but there are a number of unsatisfactory elements and I cannot be sure sufficiently, on the balance of probabilities, that this was an accident."

Referring to the police report, he said: "There’s an awful lot of stuff I’ve seen from the police which has been very poor but this is excellent. Criminal lines of investigation have been pursued and no one is deemed to be at fault."

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The night before her death, Miss Holland had been out with a friend, Will Taylor. They had been drinking and using cocaine before going back to Mr Taylor's home.

He left the house in Green Street to go to another party, leaving Miss Holland in his attic bedroom.

He told the inquest that when he returned home, he found Miss Holland's body on the ground below his window.

He failed to call emergency services immediately, and they were later called by his landlady. Miss Holland was pronounced dead in the morning by paramedics.

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