British woman dies in Agadir hotel room a day after arriving for holiday

She had planned to enjoy Agadir’s beaches, go horseback riding and discover Moroccan cuisine. But Clare Mitchell’s holiday turned to tragedy before it had really begun. The 31-year-old Briton, from Bolton, near Manchester, was found dead in her hotel room on Friday, 9 October, just one day after arriving in Morocco. Her family, unaware of the tragedy, learned the news when police came to her mother’s door.

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Clare had left Manchester Airport on Thursday, 8 October, for a four-day stay in Agadir. She was travelling alone, as she regularly liked to do. Her sister Angel Davies, 25, tells the Manchester Evening News, whose report is cited by The Sun that the young woman was especially excited about discovering a new destination.

“She loved travelling, she loved her independence. She would go away on her own, come back, book another trip and go again,” her sister says. Clare had worked as an accounts manager before returning to university to study accounting. Passionate about music, she loved singer Pink and would sing her songs at karaoke.

“She was truly one of a kind. There was nobody like Clare. She made the most of life,” says Angel, describing a spontaneous woman surrounded by friends and very close to her family.

A £6,000 bill to bring her body home

Alongside the grief, the family now faces financial hardship. Clare had travelled to Morocco without travel insurance. Her family must therefore cover the cost of repatriating her body to the United Kingdom, estimated at up to £6,000, or about €7,000.

Her sister has launched an online fundraiser with an initial target of £5,000. By Tuesday, 13 October, more than £3,000 had already been raised through donations from relatives, friends and strangers moved by her story.

“My mother has just lost her child and now has to bear the anguish of knowing she is over there, all alone,” Angel Davies explains. The family wants to bring Clare’s body home so they can arrange her funeral in England.

The loss is all the more painful because the young Briton had already endured a terrible bereavement. Three years earlier, her husband James had died in a motorcycle accident. Clare had tried to rebuild her life, continuing her studies and travelling frequently.

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Her mother Maria, her brothers and sisters, and her thirteen nieces and nephews are now coming together to pay their final respects. On the fundraising page, Angel describes the shock of hearing the news of her death: “No parent should have to arrange their child’s funeral, let alone have to figure out how to bring them home from another country.”

The cause of Clare Mitchell’s death was not specified in accounts published by the British press. For now, her family is focusing its efforts on bringing her body home and arranging her funeral.