Death fall at 'slave' house: Police probe woman's plunge from window of cult suspects' home

The death of a woman who fell from a window at a home “controlled” by the slavery case suspects is being ­investigated by detectives.
Sian Davies, 44, plunged from the second floor of a three-storey terraced house being rented by Maoist cult leaders Aravindan Balakrishnan and his wife Chanda.
Her cousin, Eleri Morgan, said: “She must have been trying to escape
that’s the only explanation for it.
"For years she was missing, we hired private investigators to find her.”
Now police are trawling records to re-examine the circumstances in which Sian, originally from Llanelli, South Wales, fell from a bathroom window at the house in Herne Hill, South East London, in 1997


Scotland Yard confirmed: “We are attempting to access archived paper records from the inquest.”
Sian was in hospital for at least seven months after the fall before dying from her injuries. Her family had no idea of her plight..
Her cousin Eleri told ITV News last night: “She was a vivacious, outgoing girl. She went to London to study economics then just disappeared.
"She had written home and said she was looking after mothers of the world – a group I was led to believe were Maoists.
“We knew they were keeping her away from us. The only time she visited was with two minders.
“It was Comrade Bala this and Comrade Bala that. Her letters were as if someone was saying, ‘this is what you have to write”.
She said Sian rang her in 1996 asking for a meeting, but they never got together.
Eleri recalled: “The following July my auntie rang in tears and said Sian is dead. Someone had to ID the body, so I went to the hospital in London.”


 Eleri Morgan, cousin of Sian Davies

She says the was told the Balakrishnans had claimed to be Sian’s family and had refused to let her go to Stoke Mandeville hospital because they couldn’t visit there.
Eleri admits that although the coroner recorded an open verdict, she always had her doubts. She said: “I think it was suspicious.
“What was she doing opening the window at that cold time of year.”
Eleri told how she was shocked when she met Balakrishnan at the inquest, saying: “I was expecting somebody really charismatic and there was this toothless old man.”
A total of 13 addresses linked to the Balakrishnans are currently being investigated
Last Thursday the couple originally from India and Tanzania, were arrested on suspicion of keeping three women as slaves.
The pair are suspected of physically and mentally abusing the women and allowing them only “controlled freedom”