Finnish tourist found dead inside hotel room in Chennai

Chennai: A 22-year-old Finnish national was found dead in a hotel room in Triplicane during the early hours of  Wednesday. Police suspect drug overdose as the reason for her death. Her male friend who was staying with her has been detained and is being treated in a hospital, also for drug overdose.

The deceased woman, Nea Emilia Helea, and her friend, Aleksi Joel Santeri Palomaki (27), both Finnish nationals have been on a tour in India since  November 22, police said. After visiting Goa and Puducherry, they checked into Hotel Himalaya Residency in Triplicane on Tuesday evening. They had booked the hotel room online while in Puducherry, according to the hotel staff.

On Wednesday morning at around 7 am, the man rushed into the reception, crying, much to the shock of  hotel staff. When he calmed down, he said  that he didn’t know what to do, hotel staff said. When they went to check the room where they were staying, the woman was lying unconscious with blood oozing out of her mouth. Triplicane police rushed to the scene on information and moved the woman and her male friend to the government multispeciality hospital nearby where the woman was declared brought dead.

Police quoted the doctors in the hospital as saying that the woman had died of drug overdose. “She seems to have consumed more than 20 pills. There were no external injury marks on her. But what triggered her death will be known only after autopsy,” a senior police officer said. The man is also being treated at the hospital, police said.

Triplicane police have registered a case under section 174 CrPC (unnatural death) and are investigating. Police have also made contact with the Finland embassy and have informed them about the death of the woman.