Herts pool death pair named

The grandmother of a young woman who was found dead in a hotel swimming pool said she was a "lovely girl" who "did not drink alcohol or smoke".

Theresa Farma said shop manager Komba Kpakiwa, who also drowned in the pool at the luxury hotel, had planned the getaway to surprise his student girlfriend.

Speaking from her southeast London home, which she shared with 22-year-old Josephine Newahun Foday, Miss Farma said:

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An inquest has been opened and adjourned into the deaths of two people at a luxury country hotel in Essex.

A brief hearing heard that Komba Kpakiwa, 31, from Erith in Kent, and Josephine Newahun Foday, 22, from south London were found floating face down at about 7.30pm on Saturday.

Attempts were made to save them, but they were unsuccessful. Essex Police said that a provisional post-mortem examination found that their deaths were consistent with drowning.

A police spokesman said the deaths were not being treated as suspicious.

Witnesses, including hotel guests, had seen them alive in swimming gear 15 minutes earlier.

Police are focusing on the relationship between the victims as part of their investigation.

A man and a woman found dead in a swimming pool at a hotel have been named.

Komba Kpakiwa, 31, from Erith in Kent, and Josephine Newahun Foday, 22, from south London were discovered in the water at Down Hall Country House Hotel in Hatfield Heath, Essex, on Saturday evening.

An inquest into the deaths heard that Josephine Foday's birthday was the previous day and she was at the hotel to celebrate.

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A man and a woman found dead in a swimming pool at Down Hall Country House Hotel in Essex have been named at an inquest in Chelmsford as Kpakia Komba, 31, from Erith in Kent, and Josephine Newahun Foday, 22, from London.

Provisional results of the post mortem examinations on two hotel guests found under water in a hotel swimming pool have shown that their deaths were consistent with drowning.

The man in his 30s and a woman in her 20s has been staying together at the Down Hall Country House Hotel in Hatfield Heath

Essex police are continuing to investigate the circumstances leading up to their deaths but are treating them as non-suspicious.

The man has been formally identified but the woman has not, and any names will not be released prior to the opening of an inquest hearing, a police statement said.

A guest at the hotel where a man and woman were found dead in a swimming pool said she believed police officers were part of a murder mystery game she was attending, the Mirror reports:

Post-mortem examinations into the deaths of a man and woman who were found dead in the swimming pool of a luxury hotel in Essex on Saturday night will take place today.

The man and woman were described as being in their early 30s and early 20 respectively and have not been identified.

Read: Guests found dead in Essex hotel's swimming pool

Police said on Sunday that they are treating the deaths as "unexplained" but are not looking for anyone else in connection with the incident.

The swimming pool of the four-star hotel was cordoned off as police continued with their investigation.

The manager of Down Hall Country House Hotel in Hatfield Heath, Essex has said staff at the hotel have been left "devastated" following the death of two guests, whose bodies were discovered in a swimming pool.

Hotel manager Chris Falcus said: "We are devastated by this tragic incident and our thoughts are with the families and friends of those concerned.

"As soon as the alarm was raised, two of our team dived into the pool and did everything they could to try to save them.

"We are co-operating fully with the police investigation."