Woman investigated over Greenock hotel deaths

Nicola, left, and Margaret McDonough, top, were found injured at the Premier Inn, Greenock, last May. Picture: Hemedia

Nicola McDonough, 23, and her mother, Margaret, 52, were found at the Premier Inn in Greenock, Renfrewshire, at about 7am on 10 May last year.

Margaret, who was discovered in a bedroom, died first, while her social-work student daughter, who was found in the hotel hallway, died three days later in hospital, where she had been in a critical condition.

The pair had been seen in Paisley on 9 May at about 9am, before they travelled to the Balloch area in West Dunbartonshire, where they were later seen travelling in a Suzuki Swift vehicle.

The women, from Paisley, checked into the Premier Inn at about 3:50pm on the 9th, left a short time later and then returned between 12:30am and 1am the next day.

They were both believed to have suffered slash wounds. Police previously ruled out foul play and said they were not seeking anyone else in connection with the deaths.

The mother and daughter lived 17 miles from the hotel they checked into.

It later transpired the pair had left their home just days after Nicola had completed her social work degree.

At about the time they were checking into the hotel, foster carer Margaret failed to pick up a young boy she had been looking after from a nursery in Paisley.

It later emerged Margaret had made a will the day before she was found dead. She had signed it in the presence of a partner at the offices of MSM Solicitors in Paisley.

Her estate of £254,509 was left to her three sons, Kevin, Michael and Matthew, then aged 33, 32 and 21.

Nicola was not mentioned in the will, fuelling the belief the double tragedy was the result of a suicide pact.

However, Nicola’s friends told how they believed the charity worker had been making plans just days before her death.

It was reported the 23-year-old had completed the final part of her degree, a presentation, two days before being found injured.

Police said yesterday: “We can confirm that a 31-year-old woman is the subject of a report to the procurator-fiscal in connection with incidents which occurred between May 2012 and May 2013.”

A Crown Office spokesman said: “The report remains under the consideration of the procurator-fiscal.”