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Murder or Suicide? Mystery surrounds death of British expatriate surveyor, Phillip Cox, who “fell” from his luxury apartment in Qatar

&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"wpcnt">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"wpa">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<span class&equals;"wpa-about">Advertisements<&sol;span>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"u top&lowbar;amp">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<amp-ad width&equals;"300" height&equals;"265"&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab; type&equals;"pubmine"&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab; data-siteid&equals;"109460728"&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab; data-section&equals;"1">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;amp-ad>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div><h6><strong><span class&equals;"article&lowbar;&lowbar;kicker theme&lowbar;&lowbar;copy-color">Dream job turned into a nightmare&period; Mystery surrounds the death of Phillip Cox<&sol;span><&sol;strong><&sol;h6>&NewLine;<h4 class&equals;"article&lowbar;&lowbar;headline"><span style&equals;"color&colon;&num;1a0202&semi;">Phillip Cox &OpenCurlyQuote;was trying to flee Qatar after telling friends his life was in danger&&num;8217&semi;&comma; he was found minutes to his departure<&sol;span><&sol;h4>&NewLine;<h4 class&equals;"article&lowbar;&lowbar;headline"><span style&equals;"color&colon;&num;1a0202&semi;">Circumstances surrounding the death of British expatriate who &&num;8216&semi;jumped&&num;8217&semi; off the balcony of his luxury apartment in the Qatari capital of Doha&comma; remain unexplained after UK inquest<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><&sol;span><span style&equals;"color&colon;&num;1a0202&semi;">40-year-old  Phillip Cox &OpenCurlyQuote;was trying to flee country after telling friends his life was in danger’ if he tried to leave the country where he had been employed<&sol;span><&sol;h4>&NewLine;<h4 class&equals;"article&lowbar;&lowbar;headline"><span style&equals;"color&colon;&num;1a0202&semi;">Informing his mom he felt endangered and had been warned not to leave&comma; she advised him to leave immediately<&sol;span><&sol;h4>&NewLine;<h4 class&equals;"article&lowbar;&lowbar;headline"><span style&equals;"color&colon;&num;1a0202&semi;">Summoning courage&comma; he resigned and booked a flight home<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><span style&equals;"color&colon;&num;1a0202&semi;">The quantity surveyor apparently plunged around nearly 20 ft from his balcony a few hours before he was to board a flight back to the UK <&sol;span><&sol;h4>&NewLine;<h4 class&equals;"article&lowbar;&lowbar;headline"><span style&equals;"color&colon;&num;1a0202&semi;">His battered remains was found by the chauffeur who was to take him to the airport<br &sol;>&NewLine;<&sol;span><br &sol;>&NewLine;<span style&equals;"color&colon;&num;1a0202&semi;">Following his death&comma; his door was found open&comma; suitcases packed&comma;  passport and travel ticket on the table&comma; untouched<&sol;span><br &sol;>&NewLine;<span style&equals;"color&colon;&num;1a0202&semi;">food in the microwave<&sol;span><&sol;h4>&NewLine;<h4 class&equals;"article&lowbar;&lowbar;headline"><span style&equals;"color&colon;&num;1a0202&semi;">Qatari authorities say no signs of forced entry or of any struggle found<&sol;span><&sol;h4>&NewLine;<p>Phillip Cox&comma; an British  expatriate working as a quantity surveyor in Doha&comma; Qatar had told friends and family that he &&num;8216&semi;feared for life if he left Qatar&&num;8217&semi;  was found dead on day of flight out of the Qatari capital&period;  40-year-old Cox had been working in Doha when he became concerned for his safety &&num;8211&semi; but was found dead the day he was due to return home to the UK&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Preliminary conclusions is that expatriate Brit&comma; plunged from a balcony at his apartment block in Doha&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;The body of Philip Cox who told friends he was a &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;dead man” if he tried to leave Qatar was found dead at his home on the day he was due to return to the UK&period; The body was discovered at the entrance to the Pearl Island apartment complex in Doha on November 4&comma; 2015&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Indications was that he had plunged around almost 20 ft from his balcony&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Cox had been working in Doha as a quantity surveyor since March 2015 and was staying at the luxury Pearl Island apartment complex&comma; as did some of his fellow employees&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;During an inquest held at Aberdare Coroners Court&comma; Wales on Wednesday&comma; it was revealed that Cox had expressed fears about his personal safety to family in the days leading up to his death&period; Statements from his family described the deceased receiving &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;threats to his life” from people living in the apartment block after making a remark about the Queen Mother&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;He had told his friends he was a &&num;8220&semi;dead man&&num;8221&semi; if he left Qatar<br &sol;>&NewLine;The expatriate surveyor apparently was told that if he left Qatar he was a &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;dead man”&comma; a fact he raised and in conversations with his mother&period;&period; He went on to tell her the fears kept him from sleeping and he was &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;sick with worry”&period; His mother advised him to resign from his job and &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;get out of there as soon as possible&comma; on the next flight possible”&period; Cox also sent a social media message to a friend saying&colon; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;I’m a dead man if I try to leave&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h6>&NewLine;<p><strong><img class&equals;"alignnone size-full wp-image-79152" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;konniemoments&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;10&sol;the-pearl-doha1&period;jpg" alt&equals;"The Pearl Doha1&period;jpg" width&equals;"615" height&equals;"410" &sol;><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The Pearl in Doha&comma; Qatar&period; Cox apparently fell or jumped to his death at the Pearl Island apartment complex in Doha<&sol;strong><&sol;h6>&NewLine;<p>Summoning up courage&comma; Cox handed in his resignation on November 3&comma; with a request to his employers to arrange an immediate flight back to the UK&period; His departure was scheduled for the next day November 4&period; A company driver was assigned to pick him up at around 7&period;30 PM&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;However&comma; on the day he was scheduled to depart Qatar&comma; Cox’s body was found near the entrance of the complex&period; Apparently&comma; he had fallen nearly 20 feet from his balcony half an hour before he was due to depart the Qatari capital&period; The time of the fall is estimated between 6&period;45 PM and 7&period;00 PM&period; Cox sustained traumatic injuries&comma; particularly to his skull&comma; which lead to his death shortly after&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;The victim&&num;8217&semi;s father&comma; Richard Cox &comma; in a statement addressed to the inquest&comma; said&colon; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;The fact that he had arranged to come back to the UK&comma; does not lend itself to Philip having jumped&period;”<br &sol;>&NewLine;&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Something really serious must have happened to Philip to make him want to come home so quickly and give up the job he had always dreamed of&comma;” the senior cox said in another In another email sent to the coroners office&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;A resolution to the puzzling aspects of the death scene in Qatar does not appear to be coming any time soon&period; Officers in Qatar said there were no signs of forced entry or of any struggle in the apartment prior to his death&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Still&comma; the report the from the Qatari authorities described how the door to Cox’s apartment was found open with his suitcases packed&comma; his passport and airline ticket on the table&period; Food was also found in the microwave oven&comma; untouched&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;The one aspect of the investigation established by inquests in both countries is the nature of the injuries&period; A postmortem by Dr Rick James&comma;a pathologist based in Cardiff agrees with the postmortem conducted by a Qatari pathologist in the days following Cox’s death<br &sol;>&NewLine;Both loosely agreed on the cause of death as blunt force trauma to the head&comma; chest and pelvis as a result of falling from height&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;According to Assistant coroner Graham Hughes&comma;  the real difficulty was determining exactly the manner of death&comma; rather than cause of the surveyor&&num;8217&semi;s death&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Hughes explained that the inquiry was more &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;complicated and time consuming” due to the fact that the Welsh court has no jurisdiction to summon witnesses or gather evidence abroad&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;The investigation into the cause of death was completed by the Qatari authorities&comma; who may not have investigative procedures with the same intensity and thoroughness that we have in England and Wales&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;This means that the court is at the mercy of the Qatari authorities in relation to the quality of evidence&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><img class&equals;"alignnone size-full wp-image-79154" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;konniemoments&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;10&sol;phillip-cox-had-been-staying-at-the-pearl-island-apartment-complex-with-fellow-workers1&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Phillip Cox had been staying at the Pearl Island apartment complex with fellow workers1&period;jpg" width&equals;"960" height&equals;"559" &sol;><&sol;p>&NewLine;<h6><strong>The man-made island Pearl-Qatar in Doha&comma; capital of Qatar&period; Philip Cox had been staying in the Pearl Island apartment complex with fellow workers when he died&period; His death occurred on <&sol;strong><strong>the day he was due to fly back to the UK<br &sol;>&NewLine;<&sol;strong><&sol;h6>&NewLine;<p>Statements from the Cox family&comma; witnesses and co-workers was tendered as evidence at the inquest&comma; as were reports from the Qatari police&comma; postmortem reports and evidence from lead investigator on the case for South Wales Police&comma; Det&period; Insp&period; Andy Paddison&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;However&comma; the inquest heard how no witnesses from Qatar were available and some evidence&comma; including CCTV from the apartment complex&comma; was not made available during the inquiry&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Circumstances which Assistant coroner Hughes said could be described  &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;frustrating” for investigating officers who had made every effort to gather evidence and liaise with the Foreign Commonwealth Office&comma; leading to the conclusion that it was &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;extremely difficult” to answer the question of how Mr Cox died&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;There is no doubt in the evidence from Mr Cox’s family that in the days leading up to his death&comma; he perceived there were threats to his own safety and life&comma;” Mr Hughes said&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Although we have little evidence as to the nature or basis of these threats&comma; they obviously caused a significant shift in his views on remaining in Doha and gave him a really strong desire to leave the country as quickly as he possibly could&period;”<br &sol;>&NewLine;Mr Hughes added&colon; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;But for the reasons given&comma; there is no evidence to explain exactly how Mr Cox came from being in his apartment to where his body was found&period;”<br &sol;>&NewLine;An open conclusion was recorded&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

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