Widow cannot claim insurance as courts hold on to husband’s autopsy report

The wife of a Portuguese national who died in Malta at Comino’s Blue Lagoon is unable to claim life insurance because the Maltese authorities have not yet released the autopsy report.

Georgina Carvalho has been waiting a whole year and three months, yet the case of her husband Manuel Azevedo remains under investigation by the Gozo courts.

Azevedo, 41, was on holiday with his wife and children in Malta on 16 July, 2018 when he died while swimming at Comino Bay. At the time his two children were aged six, and one year old. The accident happened three days into their ten-day vacation.

He was pronounced dead at the Gozo General Hospital after being rescued by lifeguards from the Emergency Response and Rescue Corps (ERRC). The duty magistrate at the time was Paul Coppini.

Since then, Carvalho has been unable to access her husband’s insurance policies because an autopsy has not yet been released.

“My husband’s case is still under investigation by the authorities. I have contacted the Maltese court to find out about the case [but] the case is still under investigation and for that reason they didn’t sent the autopsy report yet,” she told MaltaToday.

Carvalho believes her husband, a network engineer working with a Swiss company, suffered a heart attack while swimming in the water with the six-year-old child. “In the hospital they did mention the cause of death, saying they thought it was a heart attack. The causes for death mentioned drowning and disease.”

The day after, Carvalho attended the inquiry into the death, and two days later she was taken to the hospital to formally identify her husband.
“The reason I need this document is that the autopsy is required for insurance purposes, and all our insurance policies are currently on stand-by. The insurance companies need the autopsy report to rule out suicide and to be clear that the cause of death was accidental,” Carvalho said.

“With two daughters it is just me now, a single mother providing for the family while living in Switzerland. I need the insurance money to raise my family.”

MaltaToday inquired with police inspectors for the Gozo district, who stated that it was customary for autopsy reports to take long to be issued, but would not commit to an official explanation on the case.