Murdered Girl's Friend Killed Herself

4 April 2012, 14:24 | Updated: 10 April 2012, 10:45

A talented teenage musician killed herself while depressed following the death of a close friend who had been murdered along with her parents.

Violinist Natasha Warnes, 16, (right) played in the Northamptonshire Youth Orchestra with Xing Ding, 18, (pictured on the left in the image below left, with her family) who was stabbed to death with her sister Alice and parents Jifeng, 46, and Helen, 47, at their home in Northampton on the day of last year's Royal Wedding.
 
A worldwide manhunt has been launched for the suspected killer, Helen's former business partner Anxiang Du, 52.
 
Natasha, who was known as Tasha, barricaded herself in her bedroom after placing a 'Do not disturb' sign on her door on July 28 last year.
 
She had taken a packet of sleeping tablets and placed a plastic bag over her head, attaching it with hair clips, an inquest at Northampton General Hospital heard.
 
 Her friend Alexsandr Rokicki, 19, discovered her unconscious body after realising something was wrong because she had deleted her Facebook profile.
 
Tasha was taken to hospital.  The cause of death was suffocation and an overdose of sleeping pills.  She had left two suicide notes.
 
Churchgoing Tasha, who lived with her parents Mark and Emma and youngster sister Samantha in Broadway, Northampton, was a student in the mixed sixth form Northampton School for Boys.
 
She played the violin, mandolin, penny whistle and guitar and had composed her own music, which had been played at her school in the town's Derngate Theatre.
 
Her boyfriend, Nathan Smith, told the hearing that the night before she died she had contacted him saying "What would you do if I died tomorrow?  Don't worry, just curious."
 
Nathan replied:  "It would be like when Xing died, only worse."
 
He described Tasha, who often busked in Northampton town centre, as a "bubbly and outgoing person" who loved music and was rarely unhappy.  Once or twice he said she had told him she was depressed and, three days before she died, she had bought sleeping tablets because she had been unable to sleep.
 
Her father Mark said she had been a close friend of Xing and described her as a "perfect child and best friend."
 
Northamptonshire Coroner Anne Pember returned a verdict that she took her own life.
 
The coroner said:  "She was only 16 and should have had so much ahead of her to live for.  At the time, she was feeling low and depressed and she made a decision that she no longer wished to live."