Are the Deaths of Two Women in Chiswick Linked?

Second death in five weeks raises concerns about drugs being sold locally

'Petina' was found dead in her house on Magnolia Road

October 22, 2023

Two women have died in Chiswick in just over five weeks. Both were of a similar age and both had a long term history of drug misuse.

At this stage, the cause of death in the two cases has not been confirmed but there are number of factors that raise the possibility of both being accidental overdoses. This has raised concerns locally that illegal drugs currently being supplied in the Chiswick area are deliberately being made more addictive. Both drug users in the area and medical professionals have raised this possibility.

On Monday afternoon (16 October) a 48-year-old woman was found unresponsive at her home on Magnolia Road near Strand on the Green. The police are describing the death as ‘unexpected’ and the woman’s 26-year-old daughter and her daughter’s 28-year-old boyfriend have been arrested.

Officers at the scene told neighbours that this was on suspicion of murder, but the Met have not yet officially confirmed the grounds for the arrest saying that they are continuing their enquiries. The daughter and her boyfriend have since been released on bail.

The dead woman has been named locally as Petina Philips. Neighbours say that she was well-liked on the road before her issues with addiction took hold over a decade ago.

In recent years she was often seen begging on Chiswick High Road in the company of a dog, often positioned outside Robert Dyas or the former branch of Santander and it has been suggested she sometimes shoplifted to raise funds to support her habit.

The description of her death as ‘unexpected’ seem to rule out that there was any immediate evidence of violence as a cause of death but the police were unwilling to confirm that was the case.

Police outside the house on Magnolia Road

On the morning of 11 September, the body of 44-year-old Rachel Louise Wright was found in a shop doorway on Devonshire Road. She had fallen asleep there along with another woman who, like her, was a drug addict. Rachel had struggled with addiction for many years and her companion believed she had accidentally overdosed.

A post mortem was held on 14 September with toxicology of blood and urine taken along with tissue samples of lung and liver but so far it has not been possible to determine the cause of death. The pathologist has requested a full drug screen and the results of these are due soon. This should provide a detailed breakdown of what was in the dose that Rachel took the night she died.

It is believed Rachel and Petina were known to each other and it is thought likely that they bought heroin from the same supplier. That the two women, both long term drug users should have been aware of the amount to take to avoid the risk of overdose.

There has been a trend over the last few years for illegal drug suppliers to add more powerful opioids to heroin and cocaine to make them more addictive. Fentanyl is 100 times more powerful than morphine and can be fatal even in relatively small doses making it much more likely that addicts will misjudge what they take and accidentally overdose.

A local GP said, “Funding for methadone maintenance treatment has been increased and there are success stories but the pandemic provided a set back for many people and rates of addiction in the area have risen. I couldn’t say for sure this is down to more powerful concoctions being used by the dealers but the make up of what they are supplying will always be variable. They do understand that it is bad for business to kill your customers but getting the balance between ingredients is complex if you don’t have contact with the end user.”

The National Crime Agency has previously published reports of the spread of Fentanyl laced heroin in the North East of England which led to a number of deaths a few years ago. A spokesman said two deaths in five weeks among habitual drug users wouldn’t necessarily be outside normal trends and there was no evidence of Fentanyl being added to heroin in London at the moment. He added that it was more likely, if suppliers were aiming to make their product more addictive, that they would use nitazenes but there were no reports that this was being used currently either.

It is thought possible that new dealers have recently moved into the Chiswick area and this may have also brought in new sources of supply which may include more powerful mixtures of the drugs.

The officers investigating the death of Petina were unwilling to confirm or deny that her death was caused by a more potent batch of heroin was a line of enquiry.