Kelly Ormerod says Egyptian authorities tried to convince her the death of her parents was the 'will of the Gods'
A DEVASTATED daughter whose parents mysteriously died on a dream holiday has urged the Egyptian government to stop giving her the “silent treatment” and tell her what really happened to her mum and dad.
Kelly Ormerod, 40, lost both her parents within four hours on a £6,500 five star Thomas Cook break last August.
But six months on, Kelly is still no closer to finding out the truth - despite being personally promised by the Egyptian tourism minister during a meeting in London that no stone would be left unturned in the quest for understanding why her fit and healthy parents John and Susan Cooper died.
Mum-of-three Kelly is now warning Brits not to go to the country on holiday and accused the Egyptians of trying to brush her parents’ deaths under the carpet in favour of rebuilding the troubled country’s tourism industry.
Kelly, of Burnley, Lancs, told The Sun: “Egypt might be cheap but there’s a reason for that. I was treated appallingly after mum and dad died.
"They tried to convince me that the cause of mum’s death was a broken heart and my parents’ death was ‘the will of the Gods’.
“British tourists are not safe in Egypt in my experience, and I will never go there again.”
Since suddenly losing her dad John, 69, and mum Susan, 63, Kelly has spent six months trying to find out why they both died - just hours after happily chatting and playing cards with their three grandchildren.
And while an inquest has been opened at Preston crown court, it is currently held up indefinitely as Egyptian authorities have failed to provide any post mortem or medical documents.
And tests on the the Coopers’ bodies in the UK were made more difficult as they arrived back from Egypt missing their kidneys after undergoing an embalming process - which Kelly was not consulted on.
Last November Kelly attended a meeting in London with Egyptian tourism minister Rania Al-Mashat and Thomas Cook CEO Peter Fankhauser.
Kelly begged Ms Al-Mashat - the first woman to hold the Government post in Egypt - to help her, but her pleas have been ignored.
She said: “At first the minster was very sympathetic, she told me that as a daughter she understood how I was feeling and she promised she would uncover the answers and documents I needed. She gave me her personal phone number and we exchanged WhatsApp messages.”
The messages from the minister - seen by The Sun - at first promise action, saying she is on Kelly’s side and urging her to ‘stay strong’.
But as months passed with no results, the minster stopped replying to Kelly’s messages and now she has not responded to any of her pleas for information since mid January.
Civil servant Kelly said: “I’m being given the silent treatment and I have no idea where to turn next. I feel disappointed, let down and still desperately worried that whatever killed my parents has not been resolved.
“British tourists need to understand that if they visit Egypt what happened to my parents could happen to them.”
Kelly, her three children, her parents and their friends were among the nine million tourists to visit Egypt last year.
The country is undergoing a tourism revival - spearheaded by Rania Al-Mashat - in an effort to entice foreign visitors back following terrorism concerns.
Egypt expect more than six million people to visit in the first half of 2019, they will host the African Cup of Nations in the summer and earlier this month Theresa May visited beach resort Sharm El Sheikh for the EU-Arab summit.
But concerns about the safety of Brits remain - despite Abta saying the number of Brits booking holidays to Egypt this summer is up 39 per cent.
The Prime Minister has refused to lift the ban on flights from the UK to Sharm El Sheikh, which was instigated in November 2015 after the Islamic State Group claimed responsibility for bombing a Russian airliner killing all 224 people on board.
The PM told Egyptian President Abdel el-Sisi that ‘the security of British nationals is our top priority’.
Kelly experienced chaotic Egyptian bureaucracy first hand after watching helplessly as doctors battled in vain to save her dad on the floor of his room at the Steigenberger Aqua Magic hotel in Hurghada on August 21 last year.
She lost her mum four hours later in an Egyptian hospital.
Kelly recalled: “The authorities clearly did not want to investigate what had happened. “But I knew something had gone on so I stood my ground.”
When she refused to sign a document saying her parents had died of natural causes Kelly was summoned to the local courthouse to give a statement.
She spent the majority of the following two days giving evidence while the group were banned from going home.
“It was disgusting,” she said. “The prosecutor worked at the local jail and I had to wait hours to see him. Criminals in handcuffs were brought past us, there was a big cage down the corridor where dozens of men were held. I felt very vulnerable and intimidated, but I also felt determined that I would not back down.”
The family had been enjoying their holiday until tragedy struck. Kelly recalled: “We were having a fantastic time, it was chilled and relaxed and we were very happy with how things were going.
“We went quad biking, played in the pool and on the water slides with the children and spent time at the hotel’s private beach.”
But eight days in, Kelly’s parents didn’t come down for breakfast. When she went to their room she found them dying.
“Dad answered the door and he looked awful,” she said. “He was clammy and his eyes weren’t focusing, he was staggering and bouncing off the wall as he tried to walk back to bed. It was clear they had both been sick several times and mum was lying on the bed moaning.”
Hotel staff summoned two doctors, who managed to get an IV drip into John, fearing he was dehydrated. But he collapsed while trying to get the bathroom, and then started struggling for breath.
Kelly said: “I was pleading with him, ‘dad, come on, you need to breathe’ but his eyes started to roll to the back of his head. The doctors tried a defibrillator and CPR but he died on the tiled floor. I had to close his eyes.”
Distraught, Kelly turned her attention to her mum who was lying on the bed, seriously ill.
She said: “I told mum that dad had died but she was out of it and couldn’t take it in. Mum was taken to the hotel’s clinic where she started to deteriorate. She went exactly the same as dad - clammy and glazed eyes.”
Kelly had to break the news to her children that their grandparents would not be coming home with them. “They screamed and cried” she recalled. “It was awful. They adored their grandparents.
“We were a very close family. Mum and dad lived three minutes down the road, we had dinner together every Sunday afternoon and they often picked the kids up from school. Mum was the first person I called every morning.”
She continued: “I couldn’t understand what had happened. My dad was fit and healthy, he was a larger than life character who walked his dog Marley, a Rhodesian Ridgeback, around the park several times a day.
“Mum came to the gym with me three times a week and we’d done the Tough Mudder obstacle race together the previous year. They were very active, both still working and not at all frail.”
Thomas Cook flew two senior members of staff out to assist the family and the firm evacuated 300 other holidaymakers from the resort due to a “raised level of illness among guests”.
Kelly and her children Molly, 13, Jessica, 11 and Jackson, eight, were desperate to return home but Egyptian authorities demanded she stay in the country for three further days to answer questions.
It was then a further two weeks until her parents’ bodies were released, and Kelly learned that their kidneys had been removed in Egypt as part of an embalming process. “I want to know why mum and dad were missing some of their organs,” she says. “I still have no explanation as to what the reason was for this.”
A joint funeral was held for John and Susan, attended by more than 300 people. But six months on Kelly is still no closer to understanding what caused her parents to die so suddenly on holiday.
“Egyptian authorities at first said a heart attack for dad and that mum died of grief, then they changed to E coli, but I don’t believe that,” Kelly said. “We ate all our meals at the resort and not a single other holidaymaker was seriously ill or died because of E coli.”
Senior Coroner Dr James Adeley has requested post mortems and other reports from the Egyptian authorities but has so far had no response, and warned that the process may take months, or even years, to conclude.
Kelly later found out that the room next to her parents was fumigated with agricultural pesticide for bed bugs, and was taped off after the procedure. She questions whether the chemicals used could have contributed to their deaths.
“I believe they were poisoned somehow,” she says. “Whatever got into their bodies just shut them down.
Thomas Cook told The Sun that they have provided the coroner with ‘every piece of information we have been able to gather from the hotel and local authorities’ and will ‘continue to offer support’ to Kelly.
And Kelly has vowed to continue her battle to understand what happened to her beloved mum and dad. She said: “My family has been devastated by this. I still go to mum and dad’s house and just sit in their living room as I feel close to them there.
“No other family should ever have to go through this experience, and I won’t stop fighting until I know whatever happened to kill my parents will never happen again.”
A Thomas Cook spokesman said the company had provided the coroner with “every piece of information we have been able to gather from the hotel and local authorities”.
He added: “We have stopped the sale of this hotel to any of our customers, from the UK and the rest of Europe, indefinitely.
“And we continue to offer support to Kelly Ormerod and her family. Our deepest condolences remain with them.”
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