Body of Billionaire Heiress Was Wrapped in Trash Bags
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Alan Davidson/WireImage(LONDON) — The body of an American heiress was found wrapped in trash bags and sealed with tape, a London court hearing for the woman’s husband, Hans Kristian Rausing, revealed today. Rausing, 49, who has been charged with preventing his wife’s burial, was granted conditional bail and ordered to appear at Isleworth Crown Court July 26.
Eva Rausing, 48, may have been dead for at least a week when police found her body in her London home July 9, according to the BBC.
A cause of death has yet to be established for Eva Rausing, who was said to be “in an advanced state of decomposition,” according to a statement given by prosecutor Brinkman May to the court today.
Authorities said they were waiting on toxicology results to shed more light on Eva Rausing’s “unexplained death” and said there were no signs that would point to homicide.
Hans Kristian Rausing, a Swedish-born billionaire heir to the Tetra Pak food-packaging fortune, was arrested for driving erratically on July 9. Upon searching his car, police found drugs, which prompted them to search the home he shared with his wife in London’s Belgravia neighborhood, according to a Metropolitan Police spokesperson.
During the traffic stop, authorities found a crack pipe in Rausing’s car and letters addressed to his wife, May said in court today, as reported by the London Evening Standard.
“When officers asked who this person was,” referring to the addressee of the letters, “his demeanor changed, and he appeared to well up,” May told the court.
Rausing was rearrested later that day in connection with his wife’s death. He was placed in treatment for alcohol withdrawal and could not be immediately questioned by police in the week following the discovery of his wife’s body, authorities said.
Together, Hans and Eva Rausing were well-known as a billionaire power couple who donated generously to addiction-related charities but also secretly battled the same demons that brought them together 25 years ago in an American rehab clinic, where they first met.
Eva Rausing served as a co-patron, along with the Duchess of Cambridge, on the drug charity Action on Addiction. She was also a patron of the Mentor U.K. charity, a group that works to keep children away from alcohol and drugs. The couple counted Prince Charles as a friend.
The couple has four children together.
Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio