Pensioner Maureen Whale died due to stress of being burgled while home alone
A pensioner who was burgled while alone in her lifelong home died of heart problems triggered by shock and stress, a post-mortem examination has confirmed.
Retired medical secretary, nurse, librarian and air stewardess Maureen Whale, 77, collapsed at home while on the phone to a 999 operator shortly before 6pm last Tuesday. She died the next morning.
Detectives are now treating her death as manslaughter as they hunt three burglars linked with four break-ins in her neighbourhood.
One climbed over the outside gate of her home in Barnet, opened the gate, then entered the house with an accomplice while a third kept look-out at the window.
They stole her handbag and today a picture of her brown leather purse was released by police in an attempt to help the investigation.
They also took jewellery and around £30 worth of Turkish Lira and £100 of Euros.
A spokesman for Scotland Yard said: “A post-mortem examination on Friday at Northwick Park Hospital gave the cause of death as coronary heart disease – death brought on by the stress of the incident, caused by the stress of the break-in.
“Her death is now being treated as manslaughter.”
On Tuesday her family paid tribute to Maureen, saying she was looking to celebrate her 78th birthday this week.
Her nephew Lawrence and her niece Gina said in a statement: “It is heart-breaking that our Aunt Maureen is no longer with us; this last week has felt like a nightmare.
“She should have been safe in the house that she lived in all her life and we now ask how this could have happened?
“The last thing she or anybody else would have ever expected, is for burglars to break in whilst she was at home. This must have been a truly terrifying ordeal for her.
“All we think about now, is of how vulnerable and scared she must have felt.”
Detectives today urged two boys on a bike who may have witnessed the four-minute break-in at her home to come forward.
Scotland Yard also urged the criminal underworld to shop the trio in.
Detectives are linking the manslaughter in Bells Hill, Barnet, with two other break-ins in the same road and another in Sampson Avenue, Barnet.
The break-ins at Bells Hill were reported to police at 6.20pm having happened around 5.35pm.
Three quarters of an hour later police were told the trio struck again half a mile a way in Sampson Avenue breaking in after 11.45am.
Again the broke in by rear patio doors stealing between £200 to £300 as well as around $900.
Detectives have also linked a further attempted burglary at Raydean Road.
