Millionaire suffered injuries consistent with suffocation

A millionaire found buried in a ‘clandestine grave’ had suffered injuries consistent with a killer suffocating her, a court heard.

Jobless supermarket worker Serkan Kaygusuz, 42, has admitted plundering Norma Girolami’s bank accounts and hiding her body in a graveyard, but claims he did not murder her.

Turk Kaygusuz befriended the 70-year-old at a local swimming pool and she gave him a fortune over the next three years in a ‘parasitic’ relationship.

After fleecing her out of £284,000 he buried the body around 19 August 2021 where it remained hidden for 15 months, the Old Bailey has heard.

Pathologist Dr Ashley Fegan-Earl said Mrs Girolami’s body was fully clothed in underwear, trousers and jumper when he examined it on November 3 last year at Northwick Park Hospital.

It had been tightly wrapped in a fitted sheet and four sheets of plastic and a carrier bag had been placed over the head.

‘The body was completely and tightly enclosed within those wrappings,’ he said.

Insects had not caused any damage to the body and it was ‘surprisingly well preserved.’

The pathologist said when he examined the stomach contents ‘somewhat remarkably that was recognisable as chewed potato chips.’

‘The body was kept as a secure location which flies could not enter, or the body was enwrapped rapidly and completely after death,’ said Dr Fegan-Earl.

Mrs Girolami had suffered three fractured ribs and bruising to the chest.

‘This was consistent with a third party assault and third party obstruction of the normal pattern of breathing,’ the pathologist said.

Dr Fegan-Earl ruled out the injuries being caused by a fall or by someone attempting to revive Mrs Girolami with CPR.

‘In my view the fracture pattern and the associated bruising is not the pattern we expect to see with a simple fall to the ground,’ he said.

‘The fractures in this case are not those associated with CPR fractures.’

The doctor said that when CPR is performed the heart has stopped so no bruising would occur.

Although the injured were ‘supportive of third party assault’ the pathologist was unable to give a cause of death because the level decomposition meant it was impossible to reach any firm conclusions.

‘The cause of death must remain as unascertained because diagnosis has been hampered by decomposition,’ said Dr Fegan-Earl.

Ms Girolami, of Italian heritage, lived alone in a £900,000 flat in Elm Court, Highgate, and had returned from a day at the seaside when she vanished.

Her body was found 15 months later in November 2022 in St James’s Churchyard in Friern Barnet.

Kaygusuz, of Crouch Hall Court, Sparsholt Road, Islington, denies murder.

Jurors were told he admits perverting the course of justice by hiding the body, theft, three counts of fraud and one of transferring criminal property.

The trial continues.

ends