Body of missing British mother found

PALMA
THE body of the British mother whose daughter sustained multiple injuries when she fell from a fifth floor balcony in Majorca on Monday morning, was found in the sea just metres from the hotel in which the family was staying in Cala de Mallorca at 4.45pm yesterday, police said.

45 -year-old Sara Cooper had not been seen since her daughter's accident and a major search for the missing woman was launched within hours of the seven-year-old being operated on in Manacor Hospital on Monday.

Official sources said yesterday evening that the body was found in a cave near to Cala Domingo, the small beach in the resort which is just a few minutes walk to the right and rear of the Hotel Samoa.

The area where the body was found had been the centre of the search all day on Tuesday and where police divers and amphibious teams combed the foot of the steep cliffs on which the family holiday resort is perched.

National Police and Guardia Civil helicopters teams had also been involved in the exhaustive search of the sea and scrubland surrounding the resort.
Yesterday, the search had in fact been stepped up after Sara Cooper had been officially declared a missing person on Tuesday evening once the initial 36-hour period had expired.

Yesterday afternoon the body was transferred by police launch to the nearby port of Portocristo where it was met by a coroner and forensics. This morning her body will be moved to Palma to the Forensic Institute where an autopsy will be carried out today to determine the cause of death.

Mrs. Cooper, who has four children, was said to have been dressed in the clothes she was last seen wearing on Monday morning moments after her seven-year-old daughter fell from their fifth-floor hotel balcony.

The daughter, who was sharing her room with her mother, while the two elder brothers, the eldest remained in England, shared the adjacent room with father Ian, yesterday continued in a stable condition in Son Dureta's intensive care wing.

The family from Foxton, Camridgeshire, had only been in Cala de Mallorca for a few days, they planned to spend the half term week on holiday in the resort when tragedy struck early on Monday morning.

It is understood that Sara Cooper was in the room with her daughter at the time of the fall but, as she went missing almost immediately, police have been unable to piece together the events leading up to the accident.

She is understood to have been playing at the time but, while today's autopsy should reveal the cause of the mother's death, what happened to her seven-year-old daughter may never be resolved.

However, what is important is that the daughter is understood to be slowly recovering from her injuries and continues in a stable condition with her father and brothers by her bedside with the full support and assistance of the British Consul Paul Abrey.