Precisely what killed a Malaysian woman whose body was found buried on a rural property on Tasmania's east coast is unclear, after she refused to get cancer treatment over fear of deportation.
Soo Lan Chuah moved to Australia in 2017 to be with Olaf Vennik, who she fell in love with after they met through an online chat.
The couple lived together in a caravan and outbuilding on Vennik's sister's property at Cranbrook off his single pension, and Ms Chuah did not renew her visa after it expired.
She was a very private person with only a few close friends, and the pair did their shopping at Launceston to avoid getting recognised, Vennik said.
Ms Chuah first mentioned she had a small growth on her tongue about a month before moving to Australia, and by late 2019 told Vennik it had grown.
The growth started to make it hard for her to talk and she resorted to eating pureed food before she visited a dentist to have a tooth removed in April 2020.
Ms Chuah told the dentist she knew about the growth but did not want to talk about it.
Instead, she indicated she was receiving alternative treatment for it.
The dentist respected her wishes.
Ms Chuah received massages, bathed in magnesium salt, and used a sauna, oils, rinses and pulse therapy to treat the growth, which she assumed was cancer.
Vennik tried to steer her towards regular medical treatment but she refused, instead accepting she would die and fearing she would be deported if she saw a doctor.
The dentist later told a coroner the cancerous growth was the most severe of its type he had seen in more than three decades of dentistry.
At the time he treated Ms Chuah for her tooth, he believed she only had up to six months to live, he said.
The cancer was inoperable.
Ms Chuah's health deteriorated in the weeks before she died, aged 65, at the property at Cranbrook in August 2020.
Vennik had spoken to his sister about what he should do when Ms Chuah died, and agreed he could bury her on the property to avoid detection.
"There was general concern that if Ms Chuah's death was reported they may face charges in relation to harbouring an illegal immigrant," Coroner Robert Webster said in a report.
Vennik's sister later told a neighbour Ms Chuah was buried on her property, prompting the neighbour to inform police.
Prosecutors later downgraded charges against Vennik, and he was ultimately fined for failing to notify a death and unlawfully disposing of human remains.
Mr Webster referred in his coroner's investigation report to an autopsy, which could not conclude what killed the 65-year-old.
The coroner could only determine Ms Chuah died from natural causes.
The autopsy suggested cancer or ischaemic heart disease were the likely culprits, although cancer seemed more likely given what the dentist saw.
Mr Webster made no official findings or recommendations over her death.
