Shocking double tragedy explained.
A horrifying mystery unraveled inside a Nottingham council flat—a mom and her teenage daughter lay dead for months before anyone noticed.
Fatal ignored 999 call revealed.
Alphonsine Djiako Leuga, 47, and her 18-year-old daughter, Loraine Choulla, were discovered dead in their home on May 21, 2024—months after they died.
The tragedy began on February 3, when Alphonsine made a desperate 999 call requesting an ambulance.
Shockingly, that call was labeled “abandoned” and closed without emergency services being dispatched.
“I am truly sorry that we did not respond as we should have,” said Keeley Sheldon, Director of Quality at East Midlands Ambulance Service.
Following an internal probe, the ambulance service admitted fault and pledged changes to policies and training.
The struggles behind closed doors highlighted.
Alphonsine suffered from sickle cell anaemia and had recently been hospitalized for a serious respiratory infection.
Detective Con Jack Cook believes she likely died shortly after the ignored emergency call.
Her official cause of death was pneumonia of uncertain cause.
Meanwhile, Loraine, who had Down’s Syndrome and learning disabilities, was almost entirely non-verbal and fully dependent on her mother’s care.
Authorities believe Loraine died before her 18th birthday in April 2024, likely succumbing to neglect after her mother’s death.
Loraine’s absence from her special education school since 2022 and Alphonsine’s withdrawal from social services marked a gradual isolation.
Detective Cook had visited the home in 2023 and found it clean and well-stocked, showing no immediate signs of distress.
Despite social isolation, the mother-daughter bond was described as warm and caring.
But the signs of trouble were hidden beneath the surface, obscured by a web of bureaucratic failures.
Alphonsine’s disengagement from services and Loraine’s dependency created a fragile existence vulnerable to collapse.
The social services closure of the protection plan, combined with the missed ambulance call, sealed their fate.
The broken system detailed.
In 2023, Loraine was placed under a child protection plan by Nottingham City Council due to concerns about her wellbeing.
But in a devastating misstep, that plan was closed just days before Alphonsine’s fatal call for help.
“In hindsight, it was a wrong decision,” admitted Nichola Goode, a council service manager.
Social services tried to visit the home after Alphonsine’s hospital discharge but left when no one answered the door.
Goode confessed that had they known Alphonsine and Loraine were inside, police would have been called immediately.
Officials now examine whether these missed interventions contributed directly to the deaths.
The grim reality clarified.
The inquest will probe how both women died and whether timely intervention could have saved them.
This case highlights systemic flaws in safeguarding vulnerable individuals who rely entirely on public services.
A mother’s desperate plea for help went unanswered, and a daughter’s silent suffering went unnoticed.
Now, the coroner’s court is left to unravel the tragic silence that followed.
One unanswered call. Two preventable deaths.
It’s a stark reminder of the consequences when vulnerable lives fall through the cracks.
Double tragedy is a wake up call for services.
The local community and authorities face difficult questions about responsibility and oversight.
Families like Alphonsine and Loraine’s deserve better than a system that lets them slip away unnoticed.
Their deaths are a somber call for urgent reform—and a promise that this horror must never happen again.