Joyce was killed 11 years ago
AN inquest has returned an open verdict on a young Co Donegal woman who died in Africa 11 years ago.
Aid worker Joyce Campbell died when she was involved in a tragic car crash in Ethiopia in July 2005.
The family were told by the Vincentian Lay Missionaries she had died instantly; but an autopsy report in Addis Ababa found she had died a day later, on August 1, 2005.
An the inquest into Ms Campbell’s death Letterkenny Coroner’s Court at the Mount Errigal Hotel today two Irish aid workers who were injured in the same crash told Dr Denis McCauley that Joyce had died within a couple of hours of the crash after helping to rescue both of them from a ravine.
The court heard Joyce had suffered serious internal injuries including a large cut to her liver and that she had bled to death.
Both Paul Brady from County Kildare and Alan Matthews from Dublin recalled the horror of the crash.
Neither could remember the actual incident but recalled the moments and hours afterwards after they were taken by a truck to Addis Ababa for treatment.
Alan Matthews said Joyce had repeatedly asked to go to the toilet; Dr McCauley explaining to the court that the sensation of wanting to go the toilet was caused by internal bleeding.
Joyce’s mother Irene Campbell, from Meenmore, Dungloe, has campaigned tirelessly to find out how her daughter died.
Joyce had just celebrated her 25th birthday when she died while working for the Vincentian Lay Missioners.
She was only in Ethiopia for three weeks as part of a four month stay when the tragedy happened.
Two crash happened in Welyta, about nine hours north of the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa.
She was a graduate of Development, Health and Disaster Management and she also had a Masters in Humanitarian Assistance.
The dead woman’s father Paddy died four years ago, still not knowing what had happened to his youngest child.
Mrs Campbell revealed she did not even have a death certificate for her daughter but just a piece of paper from the Ethiopian authorities but she will now finally get one.
She said she had been let down by the Missionaries who had failed to get a death certificate and had wrongly told her that Joyce had died instantly.
Mrs Campbell said she and Joyce had been assured before she went on the trip that she would be looked after “legally and every other way” but that this had not happened.
She said she failed to understand why she had been told her daughter had died instantly.
“I would not wish the crucifixion we have gone through over the past 11 years on anyone else,” she said.
Dr McCauley returned an open verdict in the case because he said the accident was never investigated by Ethiopian police.
He also included a rider – or recommendation – that all death by accident abroad, in particular Ethiopia, should be investigated.
Mrs Campbell heavily criticised the Department of Foreign Affairs for “failing” her and her family.
She praised gardaí and the coroner’s office for their investigations into the case.
