ALMOST five years after the mysterious and shocking death of a young Gympie mother who suffered more than 100 injuries, her family has been granted an inquest.
Two people were formally interviewed by police, with no charges laid in relation to the tragedy, which was brought into the spotlight by The Sunday Mail on March 31 this year.
Kirra McLoughlin, 27, died on July 18, 2014, in what her family said were the most horrific and suspicious circumstances.
The vivacious mother of four had been bashed and left catastrophically brain-damaged, her autopsy revealing blunt-force trauma to her head and extensive bruising to her face, neck, shoulders, trunk, back, arms and legs.
Kirra’s mother Alison Kirkness was furious the family had never gained any answers.
Police were no longer pursuing the case, despite initially telling media they were treating it as suspicious, and an inquest bid lodged through prominent Sunshine Coast lawyer Peter Boyce in early November 2015, was gathering dust at the Office of the State Coroner.
However it has now been confirmed that an inquest will be held.
Ms Kirkness welcomed the development and said she hoped it would deliver action.
“We are so angry this has taken so long. Kirra deserved better,” she said.
“Nothing is going to bring her back, but perhaps now the truth can come out into the open.”
According to information given to police, two days before Kirra’s death there was a gathering at her rural Wolvi home, outside Gympie.
Kirra’s children were staying with her estranged husband and mother Alison, who was helping.
Her partner told police a physical altercation broke out between a female visitor and Kirra.
He claimed the woman struck Kirra, causing her to hit her head on a cupboard.
At 1.30pm, the next day he said Kirra was unable to be woken so he called an ambulance. She was taken to Gympie, then flown to Brisbane, but diverted to the Gold Coast, where she died.
The cause of Kirra’s death was “hypoxic-ischaemic encephalopathy” (brain damage due to a lack of oxygen and blood flow) as a consequence of a head injury.
In the 22-page autopsy report, it was noted that there were 105 signs of recent injury.
On October 23 the following year, after being asked for an outcome by the family, police said they had concluded their investigation and no one had been charged.
A spokeswoman for the Coroners Court of Queensland confirmed an inquest into Ms McLoughlin’s death had been granted.
“This matter is with the southeastern coroner, Mr James McDougall,’’ she said.
“The coroner has confirmed an inquest will be held, however, no dates have been determined at this stage.’’
A Queensland police spokesman said all information obtained by police in the case had been provided to the office of the state coroner.
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