Hallam fresher Caroline Everest’s death was ‘accidental’

South Yorkshire police previously treated her death as murder but have now concluded no-one else was involved


The death of Caroline Everest, a Hallam fresher, that took place in November of last year has been found to be accidental by an inquest. Caroline, a local girl from Walkley, was reported missing after a night out at Corp and her body was discovered in the Porter Brook two days later.

Christopher P Dorries, the coroner said  that “it’s clear there was nobody else there” and that “alcohol and hypothermia played a part” in her death.

The inquest was told that Ms Everest had drunk five “pints of purple”, each of which contained shots of vodka. Mr Dorries then went on to say that if  this was true, Ms Everest would have drunk 30 shots of vodka at the club.

The manager of Corp then told the inquest the drink only contained three shots of the spirit.

The inquest also heard from 31-year-old Yousef Tarfasi who was arrested on suspicion of rape in November but subsequently released with no further action. Mr. Tarfasi confirmed for the first time that he was the person seen in CCTV footage with Ms Everest.

In his statement he said he did not want to be charged with her murder and therefore had not admitted he was in the footage. He then went onto say “I was going back home and I ran across her, she was drunk and she was crying.”

He added that he held her hand and they walked together to where she told him she lived, at one point getting a taxi which he paid for.

Mr Dorries said that on the final bit of CCTV footage they had, Ms. Everest was shown sitting on a wall, across from the river where she would be found.

Recording a verdict of accidental death, Mr Dorries further said: “Whilst the exact circumstances of how she came to be in the water are uncertain it was clearly accidental and without third-party involvement.”