Murdered backpacker's sister Laura Daniels died while pregnant

Laura Daniels died five years after her sister was murdered in Thailand

The sister of murdered British backpacker Hannah Witheridge was pregnant when she died in hospital following surgery complications, an inquest has heard.

Laura Daniels, 30, died in 2019, five years after sister Hannah, 23, from Hemsby, Norfolk, was killed in Thailand with David Miller, from Jersey in 2014.

The cause of Mrs Daniels' death was unascertained.

Their mother said "you don't expect" to lose two daughters.

Hannah Witheridge, a University of Essex student, and Mr Miller, a civil and structural engineering graduate, were bludgeoned to death in Thailand.

A post-mortem examination showed Miss Witheridge had been raped.

Hannah Witheridge and David Miller's bodies were found on a beach in Koh Tao in September 2014

Two Burmese migrants convicted over the killings had their death sentences reduced to life imprisonment in 2020.

Five years after her sister's death, Mrs Daniels died at Southampton General Hospital on 16 September, 2019.

An inquest in Portsmouth heard that Mrs Daniels had surgery in 2011 for the rare condition trigeminal neuralgia, which causes facial pain.

Rosamund Rhodes-Kemp, area coroner for Hampshire, Portsmouth and Southampton, said: "Laura had a relatively rare condition, particularly for someone of her age, for which the options are medication, which some people don't get on with, or surgery.

"The surgery was effective but she did experience complications."

She started treatment at Southampton General Hospital in 2015.

Aabir Chakraborty, consultant neurosurgeon at the hospital, said Mrs Daniels was treated for hydrocephalus - a build-up of fluid in the brain.

He said: "It just felt so unfair that she kept on having these troubles."

He told the coroner he was "quite devastated" by Mrs Daniels' sudden death.

He said she was pregnant at the time, and he did not know what caused her death.

The coroner told him: "I don't think you could have done any more than you did."

The parents of Mrs Daniels and Miss Witheridge, Tony and Sue Witheridge, and Mrs Daniels' widower Lewis Daniels, attended the inquest virtually.

Weeping during the hearing, Mrs Witheridge said: "You lose one daughter, you don't expect to lose another."

The inquest was adjourned until 11 August.