World News - tetra-pak

Dec

2012

10:20am, EST

US-born heiress clutching a cocaine pipe when found dead in London home, coroner says

Dave Benett / Getty, file

Eva Rausing and her husband Hans Kristian Rausing appear at an event in 2010.

By Reuters

LONDON -- The American wife of one of Britain's richest men, whose body lay rotting at their London home for two months after her death, died from cocaine abuse, a coroner said Friday.

Eva Rausing, whose husband Hans is heir to a fortune from the Swedish packaging firm Tetra Pak, was found in July in an advanced state of decomposition under layers of clothes and garbage bags in a fly-infested room on the second floor of their six-story townhouse in an upmarket area of London.

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The 48-year-old's body was only discovered after police officers went to their house after stopping her husband for driving erratically.

Multi-millionaire Rausing pleads guilty to preventing US-born wife's burial

She was found holding a silver foil, which had been rolled up as a pipe, indicating it had been used for smoking cocaine. A post-mortem established that she had died more than two months earlier in May.

Deputy coroner Shirley Radcliffe ruled that Rausing, who suffered from the heart condition tricuspid valve disease and had had a pacemaker fitted, had died from cocaine intoxication.

Husband 'devastated'
Hans Rausing, who was given a suspended 10-month jail sentence in August for preventing the "lawful and decent" burial of his wife, said he had not been able to deal with losing her.

"I'm devastated by my beloved wife's death," he said in a statement read to Westminster Coroners' Court. "I could not cope with her dying or confront the reality of her death."

He said he had been in the bathroom shaving when he heard her slide off the bed.

Police struggle to shed light on US-born heiress' death

"She landed sideways and her head was resting on a pillow. I tried to pull her up. I shouted 'Eva, Eva, Eva,'" he said, before covering her body with blankets and bedding.

The couple, who have four children, had a long history of problems with drugs. They first met at a U.S. rehabilitation center and gave generously to addiction treatment centers.

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Eva Rausing's family has said it believed she turned to drugs in her late teens to overcome acute shyness.

The Swedish Rausing family made a fortune by building up the Tetra Pak drinks packaging business, but Hans' father sold his share of it to his brother in the 1990s, and is now worth an estimated $10 billion, according to Forbes magazine.

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Jul

2012

12:19pm, EDT

Husband arrested over US-born heiress' death in London mansion

By msnbc.com staff and news services

LONDON -- The heir to the Tetra Pak drinks-carton fortune has been arrested in connection with his wife's death, reports said Friday, but police have had to delay questioning him while he is treated for alcohol withdrawal.

The body of American-born Eva Rausing, 48, was found Monday in the couple's London home. Police have said the death is being treated as unexplained, but her husband, Hans Christian Hausing, 49, remains in police custody.

The Telegraph quoted Detective Inspector Sharon Marman as telling Westminster Coroner's Court on Friday: "We have not yet been in a position to interview Mr. Rausing. He has been arrested on suspicion of her murder and we await notification of when he would be fit to be interviewed by police."

Although the detective used the word "murder," the Guardian reported that the official inquiry remains an investigation into an "unexplained death." One of the theories being examined, the newspaper said, was that Rausing died of a self-administered overdose.

Struggles with substance abuse
Eva Rausing, a mother of four, was one of the wealthiest women in Britain at the time of her death. Her husband's family is worth an estimated $6.7 billion, according to The Telegraph. The family was ranked as Britain's 12th richest in the 2011 Sunday Times Rich List.

Police found Eva Rausing's body in the couple's west London home after arresting Hans Christian Rausing for driving erratically. Reports suggest she had been dead for up to a week before her body was found.

Police struggle to shed light on US-born heiress' death

British tabloids have documented Eva and and Hans Christian Rausing's long struggles with substance abuse.

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In 2008, Eva Rausing was arrested outside the U.S. Embassy in for reportedly trying to bring crack cocaine and heroin into building in her handbag. Police later found small amounts of cocaine, crack and heroin in a search of the couple's house. They were charged with drug possession but prosecutors later agreed to drop the charges in exchange for formal police warnings.

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 welcome participants on the London philanthropic scene. She was on several charity boards, focusing on those that helped fight drug addiction, but also serving on Prince Charles' Foundation for the Built Environment.

Evidence suggests that Eva Rausing's drug use intensified in the years since the embassy arrest. Recent photographs showed that Eva Rausing had become quite gaunt, and her once stocky husband also recently appeared thin and furtive, bearing only a slight resemblance to his former self.

Liz Brewer, a friend of Eva Rausing, told Britain's Sky News that Rausing's problem had been "pushed under the carpet" for too long.
"She was totally addicted, obviously, and was trying to get off it," Brewer said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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