Tara Palmer-Tomkinson’s tragic final days – body found by cleaner and ‘horrendous’ last tweet

Tara Palmer-Tomkinson was a socialite and television personality who lived a life full of secret good deeds, scandal and many highs and lows.

The former I’m a Celebrity…. Get Me Out of Here!, who would have turned 52 on December 23, was found dead at her London flat on February 8, 2017 aged 45.

In January 2016, she was diagnosed with a prolactinoma, a benign tumour (adenoma) of the pituitary gland, and announced her illness publicly in November of that year.

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Her death was treated as unexplained but not suspicious and her sister, Santa Montefiore, later told the media at the time that the cause of death was a perforated ulcer and peritonitis. On what would have been her birthday, Daily Star looks back at her final days.

Last family holiday

Tara her brother James and sister Santa joined their parents Charles and Patti to celebrate their golden wedding anniversary in India before Christmas back in 2016, just weeks before her death. She then travelled to Thailand, where she got caught up in the New Year floods on the resort island of Koh Samui. 36 people died in the floods in the southern part of the country, with hospitals, airports and highways closed.

One of Tara’s last tweets on January 8 2017 revealed that she’d had a traumatic journey back to the UK. “I’m home!” she tweeted. “The floods, disruptions in Koh Samui, beyond horrendous. What I witnessed, experienced at the airport, disruption, chaos, trauma.” She also pointed out, everyone was doing their best to get people home. Tara continued: “It was so emotionally overwhelming the kindness of everyone helping everyone, in my prayers r with those still stuck x.”

Final tweet

The reality star’s last ever post on Twitter, now known as X, came days after her message about her “horrendous” experience getting back home from Thailand. On January 11 2017, the socialite told her followers that she’d voted in the National Television Awards. At the time, fans rushed to post tributes to the star underneath her final tweet.

Last public photograph

Tara, who had a close relationship with the Royal Family, was last spotted in public two weeks before her death was announced. On January 25, 2017, she was pictured outside her London flat wearing wedges, skinny jeans and a navy coat worn over a colourful stripy jumper. Her caramel locks were styled down and loose and she donned a pair of sunglasses to keep the winter sun out of her eyes.

Final movements

Police said at the time that they considered Tara’s death to be “unexplained” but a group of builders working int the same building as Tara’s flat revealed they heard a “very loud bang” days before her body was discovered. The workers, who were carrying out a in the flat below Tara’s, said they heard the noise February 3, five days before Tara’s passing was announced.

One of the builders told The Sun at the time: “We’d hear her walking around up there. But last Friday we heard a very loud bang in the afternoon — like someone or something falling over. We hadn’t seen her or heard her since then.”

Body found by cleaner

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Tara’s cleaner discovered her lifeless body. The Portuguese cleaner, in her 30s, raised the alarm after arriving at the west London flat and was heard crying by builders renovating the apartment below. The builders renovating the property since September say they saw the cleaner visit the flat twice a week. “We could hear her walking around upstairs last week,” one said. “She was cleaning. We could hear hoovering. It was the cleaner who found her. She was crying and it was very quiet before she arrived and set off the alarm.”

Minutes after the cleaner set off the alarm an ambulance arrived with several paramedics, followed by three police cars. Dressed in black suits they wheeled a body bag on a trolley to a parked up private ambulance – four hours after police were called.

A neighbour who saw the former model and it girl regularly said she hadn’t seen Tara in five weeks. The unnamed woman said at the time: “I last saw her five weeks ago, but she looked lovely. I would see her sometimes in the corner shop. She liked to tell people they looked amazing, that was her thing. It’s very sad.”

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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk