AN INQUEST into the death of a 24-year-old woman who was often seen sitting outside a Co-op has been opened and adjourned.

Shannon Cunningham was found dead on Thursday, July 18, at her home in Clarendon Road, Hove.

Her boyfriend had called an ambulance after he woke up and found her to be unresponsive, but she was pronounced dead at 5.55am.

Police later found evidence of drug use in her flat, the hearing in Brighton was told.

Coroner’s officer Mike Bebee said pathologists gave the provisional cause of her death as the toxicity of drugs GHB and GBL.

GHB and GBL are class C drugs which produce similar effects to alcohol, but are easy to overdose on and can be lethal.

Shannon, who was unemployed and had a young son, was known to sit outside the Co-op in Western Road in Hove and may have

suffered periods of homelessness.

After she died commemorative messages were left in chalk at the spot where she sat outside the supermarket, including “RIP Shannon Cunningham”, and “always loved”.

A memorial for her was held in Brunswick Square, Hove, in August.

Coroner Veronica Hamilton-Deeley made a request for the police to do a full investigation and said she would need a GP report for Shannon’s inquest.

She said: “I already have a statement from Shannon’s boyfriend, but I will need to know more about what happened that evening.”

The inquest has been adjourned until January 13 next year.