A YOUNG woman who died of a cocaine overdose after getting involved in an international drug smuggling gang suffered a "heinous crime", an inquest heard.

A former forensic senior examiner who examined photographs from the scene of Laura Hill death described her death as a "possible murder".

An inquest heard yesterday that Laura Hill, who died of a cocaine overdose in Buenos Aires at the age of 25, in 2007 repeatedly told friends she was afraid for her life in the days before she died.

Alan Bayle, who worked with the Metropolitan Police for 25 years, told the court that having examined photographs from the scene of the crime, he was sure that Laura had been assaulted before her body was moved to the place it was found.

Commenting on photos showing bruising to her lip, jaw and legs, he said: “The bruising and wounding to the face has all the hallmarks of her being assaulted and this should be treated as possible murder.

“This case should be investigated and justice should prevail in capturing the perpetrators of this heinous crime.”

Laura's sister Kerry cried as one of the last men to see Laura alive, convicted drug importer Jason Bowley, told the inquest of the last time he saw her.

In emotional scenes in Eastbourne law court, Bowley told of the last time he saw Laura alive after leaving her hotel on the night before her body was found.

He said: “I was walking away from the hotel and looked behind me and she was staring at me like she was never going to see me again.”

Bowley, who was sentenced to 15 years for drug offences in 2010, told coroner Alan Craze that he had been asked to go to Argentina to help Laura after she “got into some trouble.”

He described how she become tangled up in the drugs gang and was reluctant to accept a job overseeing the smuggling of drugs out of the country.

Bowley said Laura was scared of Leslie Graham and Michael Hailwood - both sentenced to very lengthy prison terms for their part in the smuggling operation and was worried she would never return safely to the UK.

He added that while he had been trying to help Laura, he was threatened by a member of the gang, who said: “Stop hiding her or I’ll put one in you.”

The inquest earlier heard from retired Sussex Police detective chief inspector Trevor Bowles who had interviewed on condition of anonymity a man who, in 2006, was Laura’s boyfriend.

Det Chf Insp Bowles said: “She had told him she’d been offered work to import illegal drugs from a foreign country, to go out as a couple and return with drugs.”

Laura’s family have been seeking the truth about Laura’s death for eight years having originally been told that she died of natural causes.

Yesterday Laura’s brother Ryan told The Argus: “It brings some sort of justice for Laura, knowing that we’ve got a better understanding of the circumstances in which she died.”

The inquest has been adjourned and will continue later this month.