EGYPT'S SUSPICIOUS HOTEL DEATHS OF THE COOPER COUPLE

Egyptian investigators are currently investigating the sudden deaths of a couple on holiday, John and Susan Cooper, who fell ill at the Steigenberger Aqua Magic Hotel in Hurghada and ultimately died on the 21st of August.

Mr. Cooper aged 69 and Mrs. Cooper aged 63 were with their daughter, Kelly Ormerod, while on holiday. On the evening before they fell ill, Kelly said her parents were fit and well when they went to bed at around 1:30 am after a family meal. When the Cooper's didn't come down for dinner at 11:30 am Kelly went to check on her parents in their hotel room and found her dad struggling back into bed while her mother lay there "extremely ill". Medical help was called to the room, however, Mr. Cooper died at the scene while his wife was carried to the hospital and died later.

The cause of Mr. Cooper's death was given by the governor's office in Hurghada as "a sudden stoppage of the heart muscles and respiratory failure" and Mrs. Cooper was said to have died from "a stoppage of circulation and respiratory failure". The governor's officials continued in saying there was no reason to suspect the deaths were of criminal nature.

Although Ms. Omerod believes "something suspicious" cause her parents' deaths we will have to wait for Egyptian investigators results from the forensic examination to come back from the lab.

John and Susan were on a Thomas Cook Holiday Package when they fell ill and the chief executive of Thomas Cook's holidays has vowed to "get to the bottom" of what caused the deaths. Peter Fankhauser told Sky News that the company had brought in experts to test water, food and air conditioning and the results of the tests should be known within 10 days.

Mr Frankhauer said: "We have no real evidence what caused the deaths, but what I can promise is at Thomas Cook we are doing everything to support the family and to support the Egyptian authorities... to get to the bottom of it and to get to the cause.

"There is no evidence that it is a carbon monoxide poisoning. We have no evidence but I don't want to rule out anything before I really know the cause."

A spokesman for the Steigenberger hotel said the company was carrying out its own investigation and would be doing everything possible to assist the authorities.
Thomas Cook had also removed all of its 301 customers from the resort as the guests started complaining of illnesses themselves, and they were offered alternative hotels as well as the option of returning home as a precautionary measure. The hotel general manager, Dieter Geiger, however, strongly denied there was "an increased incidence of illness" at the resort.

The facts of the Steigenberger Aqua Magic Hotel are that it was audited in July by the Tomas Cook travel firm and received a score of 96% and, on TripAdvisor, the hotel scores 4.5 stars with more than 4000 reviews.

We will have to wait for the autopsy results to come in to make a conclusive cause of death. We will keep you updated.