A bride-to-be crawled from her own shallow grave after being buried alive by her fiancé - but tragically died years later from pneumonia caused by the horrifying ordeal.
Stacey Gwilliam, 34, was strangled by her lover Keith Hughes during a coastal walk before he buried her body without realising she wasn’t dead.
The 39-year-old painter decorator tried to “snap her neck” before he hid her body and fled the beauty spot on the golf course, an inquest heard today.
Hughes was arrested after he crashed her car but chillingly told police “You’ll never find her”.
But Stacey, from Townhill, Swansea, hadn’t been killed by her fiancé and instead used her nails to claw her way out the grave.
Even though she helped bring Hughes to justice she was never the same after the harrowing attack.
An ongoing inquest heard that she spent three months in hospital following the attack in July 2015.
She had to relearn how to walk and talk again.
PC Tom Evans, of South Wales Police, said former Virgin Atlantic worker Stacey suffered repeated bouts of pneumonia in the following years - and died at the age of just 40.
He said: "She suffered with severe depression and anxiety and also suffered from pneumonia due to being buried alive."
The inquest heard Stacey first met Hughes in 2011 before he became abusive towards her.
PC Evans said her family began fearing for her safety after they noticed she had "marks and bruises" on her body during the relationship.
Hughes was jailed for life with a minimum of eight years by Judge Paul Thomas at Swansea Crown Court.
The judge said he was a "severe risk" following the attack between Bracelet Bay and Langland Bay in Swansea.
In a dramatic victim statement to the court, Stacey told how she nearly died and spent nearly three weeks in a coma after saying she wanted to end their relationship.
She said: "The simple truth is what he told me that day: 'If I can't have you no-one can'.
"He knew the relationship was over and knew I would not go back to him. He took me down there that day to kill me, and he nearly succeeded.
"I will never ever forget what he did to me that day and what he did to me throughout our relationship and now I have to live with that for the rest of my life. I only hope he does too."
The inquest heard Stacey died at home in November last year after suffering from a chest infection.
Only the day before she died she rang her GP and was told to take antibiotics, but was tragically found dead in bed the following day.
The inquest heard Stacey had started to order medication online - and toxicology reports found a number of drugs in her system which were mostly prescribed.
A post mortem by Dr John Williams found the cause of death to be bronchopneumonia with combined drug toxicity.
The inquest in Swansea heard Stacey also suffered with PTSD, anxiety, depression and panic attacks.
Acting Senior Coroner Colin Phillips recorded a conclusion of accidental death.
He said: "I have heard she suffered a number of health issues in her short life and was subjected to a number of abusive relationships.
"There is no evidence that she intended to end her life on this occasion.
"Stacey died as a result of self medicating when she was suffering from a chest infection."
