Rachel Whitear

Rachel Jayne Whitear (6 February 1979 – 10 May 2000) was a young woman from Withington, Herefordshire, who died of a heroin overdose in Exmouth, Devon, in May 2000 at the age of 21.

Rachel Jayne Whitear was born in Weymouth, Dorset, on 6 February 1979, the younger of two children born into a middle-class household.

She was raised in Withington, Herefordshire, where her family relocated in 1980.

Whitear had one brother.

Following the separation of her parents and her mother's remarriage, she gained a stepbrother and stepsister.

As an adolescent, Whitear devoted much of her time to raising money for charitable causes by participating in sponsored activities such as walking and swimming.

She is also known to have encouraged her parents to purchase The Big Issue to donate to the homeless.

The nationwide anti-drug campaign following Whitear's death has been compared to the anti-ecstasy campaigns undertaken after the 1995 deaths of English teenager Leah Betts and Australian schoolgirl Anna Wood.

Scholastically, Whitear was an excellent student; obtaining 10 GCSE passes in 1995.

She was an accomplished pianist and an avid football fan.

Whitear began using cannabis and ecstasy at the age of 14.

According to a friend named Polly North, Whitear first began smoking cannabis, before progressing to occasionally taking ecstasy, largely as a means of garnering acceptance and popularity from her peers.

Nonetheless, her occasional teenage recreational drug use did not affect her studies, and her parents were initially unaware of her use of narcotics.

Following the completion of her secondary school education at Aylestone School, Whitear enrolled at Hereford Sixth Form College, where she gained two A-levels in psychology and communication studies.

Five of the six universities to which she then applied to continue her studies accepted her request.

In November 1997, as Whitear contemplated which university to attend, she became acquainted with 24-year-old Luke Fitzgerald, who had been a heroin addict for three years.

Shortly after their acquaintance, Fitzgerald phoned Whitear, asking her to date him.

Whitear accepted, although shortly thereafter, Fitzgerald began actively encouraging Whitear to use the drug: initially smoking; later via injecting.

Several months later, the father of a friend of Fitzgerald's held a confidential talk with Whitear's parents in which he informed them their daughter had confided in him she was "using heroin".

Whitear was confronted about her heroin usage, but insisted she only used the drug from "time to time" in episodes she termed "slipping up".

She had been a frequent user of the narcotic for two years, having been introduced to heroin usage by her partner, Luke Fitzgerald, in 1998.

Following Whitear's death, her parents authorised the publication of a police photograph of their daughter's slumped, flaccid and discoloured body as she was discovered clutching a syringe inside a rented bedsit approximately two days after her death.

Her death and the publication of official police photographs of her body also led to a nationwide anti-drug campaign in Britain involving on a 22-minute documentary titled Rachel's Story which focuses upon her life, her potential, her struggles with heroin addiction, and ultimate overdose.

The particular focus of the broadcasting of this documentary was nationwide secondary schools.

By mid-1998, Whitear's parents had noted marked changes in their daughter's personality: she had changed from a pleasant, outgoing and exuberant young woman into an irritable, insecure and unreliable individual.

Nonetheless, her mother would later insist that, although Whitear would "sell anything" to fund her habit as her addiction increased, unlike many addicts, her daughter never stole to fund her habit.

With help from drug counsellors, Whitear occasionally managed to avoid drug consumption for extended periods of time.

To her family's relief, on one occasion in 1999, she chose to re-apply for a university place, opting to study psychology and sociology at the University of Bath.

In August 1999, she began studying at this university, but abandoned her studies after one term as her heroin dependency increased.

Shortly thereafter, in late 1999, Whitear informed her parents she and Fitzgerald were moving from Withington to Exmouth, where they had secured a rented flat in Lyndhurst Road.

By early January 2000, the two had moved to Lyndhurst Road, Exmouth, where Whitear obtained a series of low-paying jobs in locations such as a bar in Bath and a shop in Exmouth.

Within weeks of this move, Whitear phoned her parents, asking to return to Herefordshire.

Her parents agreed, and Whitear briefly returned to their home.

Shortly thereafter, her parents returned home one evening to discover Whitear lying unresponsive on her bed; briefly unconscious from an injection of heroin.

By February 2000, Whitear had returned to Exmouth.

Shortly thereafter, she informed Fitzgerald—who is known to have physically abused Whitear —that their relationship was effectively over.

In May, she secretly moved into a rented room in a small, three-bedroom terrace house at 4 Pound Street, Exmouth.

On Tuesday 9 May, she left Fitzgerald a note, telling him that she needed her own space "uninfluenced by anyone, to develop a new life in."

She is believed to have died the following day.

Whitear is believed to have died on Wednesday 10 May 2000.