WESTON-SUPER-MARE, England, Oct. 28 (UPI) -- A divorced British woman who moved to the Dominican Republic in 2006 with $318,000 in savings mysteriously died of starvation this month, her mother said.
Virginia Owen, a 48-year-old former shop manager from Newbury, moved to an apartment in Sosua in the Dominican Republic with her life savings after her 15-year marriage collapsed, The Sun reported Thursday.
Owen's mother, Rosemary Walkley of Weston-Super-Mare, said she became concerned five months ago when e-mails from her daughter became sinister and threatening, and she could hear her daughter crying in pain on the telephone, the British newspaper said.
Walkley said she sent Owen's brother Daniel, 40, to check on her. He arrived Oct. 13 to find his sister emaciated and starving in the filthy apartment that had no food in it.
Daniel rushed Virginia to an American hospice where she died the next day, The Sun reported.
Walkley said she is showing the picture of her "bag of bones" daughter as a cautionary tale to other women.
UPI
