Carli Barry, who suffered from ME, died in York in February 2001, but the inquest into her death was held only yesterday.
York coroner Donald Coverdale, who had been contacted by the Home Office over the delay, told Carli's parents, Sheila and Geoff
rey Barry, at the end of the hearing why they had to wait so long.
One reason was the inquiries carried out by Mrs Barry herself, as she tried to pinpoint when her daughter died. Mr Coverdale said it was right to wait until her research finished. He also said that to have proceeded without new evidence about drugs in Miss Barry's body, which only became available at the end of last year, could have led to a miscarriage of justice.
Mr Barry, who threatened to walk out after Mr Coverdale asked him to keep quiet, said after the hearing it had been a "whitewash".
"I've screwed up weeks and months waiting. I didn't want to come today because I have no faith in officialdom any more."
The inquest, at New Earswick, heard Miss Barry went missing on February 8, 2001, her 27th birthday.
Danny Covell, her boyfriend of six years, woke at about 8am to find Miss Barry gone from the flat they shared at Cecilia Place, in Holgate, York.
When he turned on his mobile phone, he heard a message she had left two-and-half-hours earlier which suggested she might have harmed herself.
She had taken items from the flat, including a bottle of whisky and a bottle of prescription painkillers.
Mr Covell told the inquest Miss Barry's moods were erratic and she often talked of suicide.
Her ME restricted her mobility, but her condition had been improving in the time leading up to her death, making her worry she would lose her disability benefit and be forced to work before she had fully recovered, triggering a relapse.
Miss Barry could not walk very far, and, finding no trace of her in the neighbourhood, Mr Covell called the police and a search began.
On February 15, a week after her disappearance, officers searched the couple's flat, including her bedroom, and found nothing.
But that night Mr Covell's friend, John Clow, stayed at the flat and found a suicide note, timed at 4.23am on February 8, under a pillow on her bed.
Recording a verdict that Miss Barry killed herself, Mr Coverdale said he believed she had taken an overdose of codeine phosphate tablets at home, at the time she wrote the note.
Her body was found on February 17, by Mr Covell and friend Mike Pratt, behind St Paul's Church in Holgate, only 150 yards from her home.
Robert Forrest, professor of forensic chemistry at Sheffield University, said a codeine overdose would take between six and eight hours to kill someone, so Mr Coverdale said he estimated Miss Barry's time of death at between 10.23am and 12.23pm on February 8.
The coroner gave the cause of death as opiate poisoning, from codeine.
Early toxicology tests found high levels of morphine as well as codeine in Miss Barry's body.
Prof Forrest said morphine can be produced as the body metabolises codeine, but further tests led him to believe Miss Barry was in a minority where this process leads to very high morphine levels.
Mr Coverdale said without this new evidence, the presence of morphine without explanation could have led to an inference that Miss Barry abused heroin, which was not true.
The coroner did not find the police had failed in their duty towards Miss Barry, as he said they only had between an hour-and-a-half and three-and-a-half hours to find her before the tablets killed her.
He said his powers as coroner did not enable him to express an opinion about the police search of the flat and the failure to find the suicide note.
North Yorkshire police solicitor Lindsey Hall told the coroner the Barrys' complaints about the police operation had not been upheld by the Police Complaints Commission.
Mrs Barry said her investigation, for her own peace of mind, would have been quicker if the police had been more helpful in releasing information.
"I don't think the coroner made the right decision about where she took the tablets – bottles were found beside Carli's body," she said. She said she would continue to campaign for ME sufferers, saying: "Then we'd feel she hasn't died without reason."
julie.hemmings@ypn.co.uk
