Parents demand answers to tragic death of opera star, 36

AN inquest into the death of an up-and-coming opera star has heard how her boyfriend found her collapsed in his front garden in Hull, clutching a mobile phone in her hand.

Amy Black, 36, a mezzo-soprano who studied at the Royal Academy of Music and toured with the European Opera, had complained of chest pains the day before she was discovered by her partner on the morning of November 24 last year.

She had undergone heart surgery almost six months earlier but seemed to have made a full recovery, even returning to the stage, before her collapse.

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Partner Hermanus de Lang, 48, told the hearing in Hull that his girlfriend, who he had been seeing since April

last year, had not been feeling herself the day before her death.

He said: "In the morning she was under the weather, not feeling well, lethargic."

The coroner's court heard that the day before he found his girlfriend, Mr de Lang and Amy, of Keyingham, East Yorks., had fallen out and she had left his home in Hull.

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The dispute centred around a text message he had sent to Victoria Monday, a former partner with whom he has a nine-year-old child with, which had upset Amy because it suggested her relationship with him meant nothing.

Mr de Lang, known as Manus, said: 'She read the text that I had sent in the morning and that's when she got upset with me. She was upset with my choice of words."

He left his home at about 5.30pm and came back shortly after 8pm, standing outside to see Amy packing some things away before she drove off in the direction of her parents' house.

It was only the next morning when Mr de Lang woke at about 7.30am and pulled back his kitchen curtains that he saw Amy again ' laying face down in his front garden.

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Reading back a statement given by Mr de Lang, coroner Geoffrey Saul said: "She was cold to the touch and there was some blueness about her face and lips.

"I think she had a mobile phone in one hand. She was laying face down on the grass. You couldn't see any sign of life, is that right?"

Mr de Lang said it was and added that he had put a pink blanket over her body before calling emergency services, who attended and confirmed she had died.

Amy, whose family are being represented by medical law specialists as they want answers as to how she died, was also found with a bunch of keys in her other hand - though she didn't have one for his front door.

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Asked why she would have been trying to get in that way Mr de Lang said: "All I can think is that she wanted to tap the door to get my attention."

In a written statement read to the court, Jennifer de Lang, Hermanus's mother, said: "During their relationship, Amy and Manus seemed happy and I thought they were heading for an engagement.

"I know Amy had been told that her heart problem was serious and she needed to have heart surgery or she could die."

Last year Amy was diagnosed with a bicuspid aortic heart valve - meaning she only had two valves pumping blood away from the heart rather than the usual three.

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She had that surgery on June 3 in London, and Jennifer added: "Amy recovered well and seemed to be doing fine."

Speaking on behalf of the family, Margaret Ryan, a medical law specialist at Irwin Mitchell, said before the hearing: "Amy's family have been devastated by her sudden death at such a young age.

"It is important that they receive answers as to how and why Amy died, and hopefully the inquest will provide this so they can begin to move on with their lives."

The inquest continues.

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