Second case of spontaneous human combustion - Irish mother bursts into flames

Another Irish person died in ‘unusually confined’ fire at home

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Second case of spontaneous human combustion in less than a year in Ireland.

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In the second case of suspected human combustion in Ireland this year, a 50-year-old mother of three has died in an “unusually confined” blaze.
 
Elizabeth McLaughlin’s body was identified by her dental remains, the coroner’s court heard.
 
Her partner, Harry Masterson, told the inquest, “It seems to me that it was spontaneous human combustion, which I know is unusual. It was just terrible, I would not wish it on anyone."
 
The Irish police were perplexed by McLaughlin’s death on December 22, in Carndonagh, County Donegal.
 
During the inquest Sergeant John McLaughlin said, "Inside the sitting room, on the floor, were the charred remains of the person.

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"An unusual aspect was that the actual burning and fire damage were confined to the human remains on the floor and the immediate vicinity."
 
The victim’s nephew, Kevin Loftus, was the first on the scene. He said there were three dead cats in the house. He also smelt the smoke when he entered the house.
 
According to the Evening Herald he said, “I saw what I thought was a burned Christmas tree lying on the sitting room floor."
 
McLaughlin’s niece Dolores identified her clothes. Loftus said “She said 'there is her shoe'. It was then I realized it was a leg. I could not believe what I was seeing."
 
Deputy State Pathologist Dr Michael Curtis conducted the autopsy on Ms McLaughlin.
 
He told the Irish Times “There was a high level of cyanide in the blood stream and carbon monoxide in the atmosphere, which is not normally there. There was no antemortem damage.

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