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Alan Davidson / Picture Library Ltd via AP, file
Eva and Hans Kristian Rausing attend the Glamour America Fashion Show and lunch at the residence of the U.S. ambassador to Britain in London on Nov. 26, 1996.
LONDON -- Multi-millionaire Hans Kristian Rausing pleaded guilty Wednesday to preventing the proper burial of his wealthy U.S.-born wife Eva, whose badly decomposed body was found in the luxury London home she shared with her husband.
A spokeswoman for Britain's judiciary told The Associated Press that Rausing, whose father made billions selling his stake in the Tetra Pak drinks-carton empire, pleaded guilty at London's Isleworth Crown Court to charges of "preventing the lawful and decent burial" of his 48-year-old wife.
She spoke on condition of anonymity, citing office policy.
Police discovered Eva Rausing's body in early July after her husband was stopped by police after driving erratically. It was found in a fly-filled room under a pile of clothing and garbage bags which had been taped together.
It was possible Eva Rausing died up to two months before her body was found, Isleworth Crown Court heard, according to BBC News. A post-mortem examination established that she had drugs in her system, including cocaine.
In a statement to the court Hans Kristian Rausing said he had been unable to confront the reality of his wife's death, the BBC added.
'Very traumatized'
He told police that he did not have "a very coherent recollection of the events leading up to and since Eva's death" but that he had never wished her any harm.
"I did not supply her with drugs. I have been very traumatized since her death," he added, according to the BBC. "I do not know what caused her death. I did not feel able to confront the reality of her death."
The judiciary spokeswoman told the AP that Hans Kristian Rausing would be sentenced later. He has been treated in a psychiatric facility in recent weeks.
His father has a net worth net worth estimated at 4.3 billion pounds ($6.7 billion) from the Tetra Pak sale.
Tragic story of addition
Hans Kristian's plea caps a tragic story of addiction and wealth.
Eva Rausing's father Tom Kemeny, a former Pepsi executive, said in a statement on July 17 that his daughter had earlier returned to the British capital to try to persuade her husband to join her in drug treatment in the U.S.
"At the time of her death her over-riding concern was for the safety of her beloved husband, for whom she interrupted her own treatment to return to London in an attempt to take him back with her to California, but tragically to no avail," he said in the statement.
The couple's struggles with addiction -- long known to their close friends and family -- became widely known in 2008 when Eva Rausing was caught trying to smuggle crack cocaine and heroin into the U.S. Embassy in London in her handbag.
Police later found more drugs, including a sizeable amount of cocaine, in a search of the couple's townhouse and the two were charged with drug possession.
Police struggle to shed light on US-born heiress' death
Prosecutors later agreed to drop the charges in exchange for formal police warnings when the couple -- who gave millions to anti-addiction charities -- admitted guilt.
Before the embassy arrest, Eva Rausing's good looks and beautiful clothes -- along with her husband and his friendly, bear-like countenance -- had made the Rausings, who had married shortly after they met in the 1980s, welcome participants on the London philanthropic scene.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Leave a Comment:
You'd think a couple like that would have the world at their feet, and yet they had some emptiness that they had to turn to drugs....
Yes, we all need to properly appreciate what we have. "I used to complain about having no shoes until I saw a man with no feet"
It seems excessive wealth breeds insanity, especially in the second generation and so on. Perhaps that would explain the hoarding done by the 1%.
"Prosecutors later agreed to drop the charges in exchange for formal police warnings..."
Try that next time you get caught speeding.
I feel for their four children, all still minors. But where were they in all of this? And the rest of the family??? Their mother might have been dead for up to two months? That's a long time for no one to try and contact her. Maybe the kids thought mummy was in rehab and incommunicado. But someone had to have known that she had gone home.
The poor kids.... all the money in the world couldn't buy them a happy home. Here's hoping that they'll be able to make one on their own. I wish them strength.
You said MUMMY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Where was the rest of the family you ask, I got 6.7 billion reasons why the family was not around.
Two junkies who got away with drug smuggling because they were the 1%. She died the way she lived and more than likely he will too.
Whose to say that she wasn't overdosed by her husband. Oh well, just give a couple million to the right people and it's case closed.
What was learned from the Casey Anthony case is, if you commit murder, let the body decompose as much as possible, less chance of determining cause of death, and you are the only one talking.
This case, Whitney Houston, Michael Jackson, Elvis - how many of the rich and famous have stabbed themselves to death with a needle? Yeah, it's great to have that big high for a few minutes, but then you have a lifetime (shortened) of getting over.....WAIT, were we talking about drugs or America's debt ceiling???
First of all Elvis did not die of shooting up, it was a heart attack according to the autopsy reports. Did he have a problem with prescription drugs? Yes, but he also had many health problems that the general public most likely had no knowledge of at the time of his death.
Way to go George. Bring in politics on a story about someone being found dead. Get a life George...better yet get professional help.
chesney-fan, you're right about Elvis dying with a heart attack but he was taking many drugs to keep him going when he should have been resting. That put the strain on his heart that triggered the attack. If Elvis had backed off and took a leave from the concert tours he might still be alive. Of course there are those that swear they've seen him since he supposedly died. :-)
Chesney, Elvis was into alcohol & uppers, then downers to help him sleep. He could afford the best.
Sounds like we are not missing much by her being gone. Maybe he will be next - we can always hope.
Coke always beats pepsi.
Cruel. LMFAO, but cruel.
Not funny!!
"Tragic story of addition"
I kept waiting for it to all add up - but it never did.
"Tragic story of addition"
I kept waiting for it to all add up - but it never did.
ROFL!!!
Carry the two, mark out the one...nope, you're right... simply does not add up!
Some people throw their lives off the balcony.
You're right it should have read "Tragic story of subtraction". Two minus one equals one.
2 months, no suspicion of foul play at all? Bought their way out of smuggling drugs and any possible connection to her death as well. It's good to be filthy rich!
ah, you're just jealous.
How sad the difference between America and london. In london, you don't go to jail, you get a police warning for the amount of drugs that they had, cocaine, crack cocaine, and who knows what else they indulged in. In America you only get that honor if you are a lighter skin tone, but if you're darker, you get the max sentence. You're used as a number to get the revenues in the billions to keep the jails afloat. Big difference in sentencing.
There is something smelling foul here besides this womans body.
Just so sad for their kids. Nope, money cannot buy you everything.
"Prosecutors later agreed to drop the charges in exchange for formal police warnings when the couple -- who gave millions to anti-addiction charities -- admitted guilt." We all know that anyone else who doesn't have the means will go to jail.
Rich people go to court; poor people go to jail.
How does being stopped for a driving violation turn into finding your dead wife back home? GREAT REPORTING!!!
How stupid could they have been to throw their lives away on drugs....It's not like they were not educated to the woes of drugs....
So there are no light skined people in prison, What state do you live in? I'm moving there to start my life of crime.
How can anyone leave a rotting corpse in the home for months with no one noticing? You'd think there were housekeepers, because surely no one of that kind of wealth scrubs their own toilets. Another case in point that money doesn't buy you class, morals, or even common sense.
This never would've happened if they owned a gun.
Good riddence to spoiled rich bitch maybe her stupiod bone-head of a husband is next.
Stupiod?
As has been said many times before, "Cocaine is God's punishment for having too much money."
I like to see a few of you people come upon a few billion, and then lets us see who over indulges.
Is your name Bieber?
Yeah, in daily massages and long walks in the woods and kayaking around the new lake house and bicycle rides in France......all those HEALTHY indulgences that I don't have time to do because I have to pay the bills.
There are plenty of b/millionaires who have healthy lifestyles. This couple was a train wreck, with or without money. I pity their kids.
I would over dose on Holy Water
Hey...what the..where'd this wine come from?
Idle rich...idle poor, neither comes to a good end.
Idle rich...idle poor, neither comes to a good end.
he killed her...easier than splitting the money and property...he'll get away with it..money talks...loudly
When you are worth billions, surely splitting the money can't be as much of a problem?
"Police discovered Eva Rausing's body in early July after her husband was stopped by police after driving erratically. It was found in a fly-filled room under a pile of clothing and garbage bags which had been taped together. "
IT? Do they mean her body? Nice. Wtf on this story. This doesn't say much since the first time they reported on it. I was actually offended after reading this. Garbage reporting and referred to her decomposed body as IT.