A dog walker sent her mother a picture of cattle with the word “cowz” minutes before one of the herd trampled her to death in the same field, an inquest has been told.
Rebekah Morris, 29, was walking her dog in Littlethorpe, Leicestershire, on the evening of July 9 2022 when the freak incident took place.
A jury inquest at Leicester coroner’s court on Monday heard that Morris, who was known as Becki, sent the image with the word “cowz” to her mother during her walk at around 9pm.
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Her parents launched a search after she stopped responding to text messages, finding her injured in the field, the inquest was told. She went into cardiac arrest and, despite efforts by paramedics, was pronounced dead at 11.21pm.
Dr Michael Biggs, the forensic pathologist who carried out Ms Morris’s post-mortem examination, told the jury her injuries were “consistent with hoof marks from a trampling incident”.
He told the court she had suffered blunt force traumatic injuries and abrasions to her upper chest and left shoulder. “There was extensive damage to the liver, which led to severe internal bleeding. That’s the main reason why Becki died,” he said.
He added that the number of injuries was “not so large” that he believed the whole herd had been involved, and instead thought it was a “relatively brief incident involving one cow”.
Dr Biggs said there was “enough of a suspicion” to do a forensic post-mortem examination to “rule out” the involvement of a person.
“There were no other injuries to suggest the involvement of another person,” he said. “All injuries were consistent with a livestock trampling incident. The type and location of the injuries in this case, for me, were indicative of something else, such as a large, heavy creature – such as a cow.”
There were traces of alcohol and medications in Ms Morris’s blood at the time, but these were “not a dangerous combination”, Dr Biggs said.
The inquest, which is expected to last five days, continues.