A woman was trampled to death by a cow shortly after stopping in the same field to take a picture, an inquest has heard.
Rebekah ‘Becki’ Morris, 29, was found dead after taking her dog for a walk near the Leicestershire village of Littlethorpe on 9 July 2022.
Becki was last heard from her when she sent a photo of nearby cattle to her mum, captioned with the word ‘cowz’, to her mum while texting her, the inquest at Leicester Coroner’s Court on Monday.
Her parents got worried when she then stopped responding to messages and went to search for her in the field, which they recognised from the photo.
They found her injured and called 999, but she went into cardiac arrest and was pronounced dead shortly after 11pm.
Forensic pathologist Dr Michael Biggs, who carried out Becki’s post-mortem examination, said she suffered blunt force trauma and abrasions to her chest and shoulder ‘consistent with hoof marks from a trampling incident’.
‘There was extensive damage to the liver, which led to severe internal bleeding. That’s the main reason why Becki died’, he told the coroner.
Dr Biggs said the number of injuries suggested it had been a ‘relatively brief incident involving one cow’ rather than the whole herd.
‘There were no other injuries to suggest the involvement of another person,’ he added. ‘All injuries were consistent with a livestock trampling incident.’
‘The type and location of the injuries in this case, for me, were indicative of something else, such as a large, heavy creature – such as a cow.’
There were traces of alcohol and medications in Ms Morris’s blood at the time, but these were ‘not a dangerous combination’, Dr Biggs concluded.
Prior to the hearing, Becki’s dad David told the BBC his daughter was ‘the sort of person that lit up the room when she walked into it’.
‘She was a wonderful, lovely girl. She was kind, had compassion, and always had a listening ear for anyone,’ he said.
The fate of Becki’s dog was yet to be clarified at the ongoing inquest, which is expected to last five days.
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