Party Ends in Heartbreak: 20-Year-Old Woman Drowns in Pool, Grieving Parents Call for ‘Proper’ Probe
THE heartbroken parents of a 20-year-old British student who drowned on holiday have demanded a “proper” probe into their daughter’s death.
Holly Woodcock was found dead after a party at her pal’s holiday home in western France two years ago.
Lee and Joanna Woodcock with their daughter Holly
Holly mysteriously drowned while on holiday in France
An inquest into her death at the villa in St Hilaire-la-Foret said that she likely died of drowning but that an “exact cause” of death had not been established.
Chillingly, the report also said that a “traumatic cause of death” had not been ruled out – and now her parents Lee and Joanna Woodcock are begging the prime minister to intervene and demand an investigation.
The devastated parents say that there are still many unanswered questions about their daughters death in the early hours of August 2, 2024.
One painful question is why it took 14 minutes for emergency services to be called after their daughter was found dead in the pool.
Another is why police investigating the incident failed to question all the witnesses, review CCTV footage or look for videos captured on the phones of fellow party-goers.
Cops also did not take blood samples to measure the amount of alcohol in Holly’s blood.
Though an inquest did not rule out a “traumatic” cause of death, French authorities closed the case after just one week.
“We do not want special treatment — simply for the case to be investigated as it should have been”, the heartbroken parents wrote in a letter to the prime minister.
Holly’s mum Joanna, 57, said: “I want to say to Keir Starmer, ‘If this were your daughter, you would not have been dealt with this way, where the case would have been dropped after just a few days”.
“The French police put the drowning down to Holly having drunk alcohol, but her shorts were found folded up by the side of the pool; that is not something you do if you are drunk enough to drown”, she told the Daily Mail.
Photos taken just half an hour before her death show the young student – who was studying English and multimedia journalism at Manchester Met University – dancing in the kitchen.
At around 1am, Holly and some friends decide to go swimming in the pool by the house and run off to get changed.
Then Holly’s friend messages her at 1:25am asking where she was – but received no reply.
At 1:30am, the young woman was found lifeless at the bottom of the pool.
When paramedics arrived at the scene, they tried to resuscitate Holly – who briefly had a heartbeat – before pronouncing her dead at 3:09am.
An inquest in France ruled that “the exact cause of death has not been determined, and that a traumatic cause of death has not been ruled out.
“Given the context of the report and his findings, the most likely cause of death is drowning”.
Holly’s father Lee, 55, has a darker theory about what might have happened to his daughter: “I feel like standing outside the French Embassy with a placard saying, ‘If you want to murder anyone, take them to France, give them a couple of beers, and you’ll get away with it. They won’t care”.
The construction worker added: “We will never get over this, but we won’t get closure until this has been properly investigated.
“As it is, we are left wondering what on earth happened and why no one seems to care that a young woman has died”.
Appeals to the UK’s Foreign Office have also fallen on deaf ears with the government reportedly telling the family that they cannot get mixed up in a foreign country’s judicial process.
Lee said: “There is not a lot we can do about the French giving up, but it’s hard to think that our government doesn’t care either. We just want someone to look at this and rule out foul play. And that can’t be ruled out unless someone really cares enough to properly investigate.
“I can’t bear the thought of living out the rest of my days not knowing if one of, or some of the people present that evening had done something to contribute to my never seeing my daughter again”.
The couple’s MP Daniel Francis has also called for answers in this “heartbreaking” case.
He said: “If this was your child you would not expect to have the issues, such as evidence being destroyed, discrepancies with timelines and DNA samples being destroyed.
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“There are a number of issues in the investigation and if I were Mr and Mrs Woodcock I would be asking the same questions and these are questions they need answers to”, he told the Daily Mail.
The Foreign Office said: “We are supporting the family of a British woman who died in France in 2024. Minister for Europe, Stephen Doughty, has also spoken to members of Holly’s family”.