A bar worker was found dead at her partner’s home with a severe facial injury, said to have been caused by a dog, an inquest has heard.
Grace Gardner was pronounced dead at a house in Worcestershire’s Bewdley on April 23, 2024.
The 21-year-old’s body was later determined to contain traces of a synthetic opioid.
A two-day inquest is being held at Worcestershire Coroner’s Court in Stourpourt.
On Thursday, Ms Gardner’s partner, Reece Wilkes, told the inquest he woke up to see her lying beside him in bed with a “cut” on her face.
She was being licked on the forehead by his family’s pet lurcher, the pub doorman told the court.
In separate evidence, Mr Wilkes’s mother, Maria Wilkes, said she saw tablets on the floor. In a call to 999, she told operators she believed Ms Gardner – and possibly the dog – had consumed them.
Mr Wilkes, 27, said he had met Ms Gardner several weeks previously at a bar and she had stayed over at his house multiple times since.
He told the inquest that Ms Gardner had been fine around the dogs and that he was not aware that she had taken tablets or any other drugs, although he had seen her smoke cannabis.
The inquest was told Mr Wilkes, now of no fixed address, gave a statement to police while he was “under suspicion” of murder, saying he loved Ms Gardner “to bits” and had not caused her any injury.
Toxicology evidence put before the court showed the presence of a synthetic opioid described as in court as “street benzos” and said to have a sedative and amnesic effect, while Ms Gardner was also believed to have “taken or been exposed to” cocaine.
Paramedics said they found Ms Gardner dead in a “cluttered and dirty” bedroom and heard a dog “barking and making crying noises” from behind a door.
Mr Wilkes’s mother, who was renting the property in Wassell Drive, said she had got to know Ms Gardner quite well and had never seen any evidence of her self-harming.
She also said she had never seen Ms Gardner take any drugs other than cannabis.
Ms Wilkes said she ran to her son’s room after he called out, and had then taken instructions from the operator after seeing what the inquest heard was a “non-trivial” extent of tissue loss.
She told the inquest that what she had seen was “very traumatic” and said of Ms Gardner: “She had got a laceration to the side of her face. I thought, like, one of the dogs had done it.”
During the 999 call, the inquest heard, Ms Wilkes had mentioned yellow and blue tablets she had seen on the bedroom floor and said “I think one of the dogs has done it. She’s been taking something. I’m not sure whether the dog has ate it as well”.
Ms Wilkes, who was also arrested and then released with no further action, provided police with a statement, the court heard, saying she vehemently denied any wrongdoing.
Former West Mercia Pc Edward Maher told the court in a statement: “I entered the premises, which I describe as being in a squalid state.
“I spoke with Reece and Maria briefly. He appeared more upset out of the two. It was generally along the lines of ‘I can’t believe what has happened’.”
The inquest continues.
