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Roisin Burke, a 21 year old Irish university graduate died suddenly on Gili Trawangan on 31st May 2011. Known as Roe, she was the kindest person, the life and soul of the party who loved her family, friends, students and life in general.
Roe had been teaching English in Jakarta for about a year and was on holiday with friends when she and a friend became severely ill after a night out at the Happy Cafe in Lombok where their group had been drinking cocktails.
The group travelled to Gili T the following day with the girls attributing their sickness initially to a hangover.
A doctor was called on the second day in Gili T and gave Roe tablets.
Her symptoms worsened and she collapsed a few hours later.
Local paramedics were called and worked on her for an hour but it was too late.
Both Roe and Emma had all symptoms known to be associated with methanol poisoning but had no idea what was happening to them at the time.
Thankfully Emma survived.
Roe's devastated family couldn't bear to have an autopsy carried out in Indonesia as it would have meant waiting at least two weeks to bring her body back to Ireland so an autopsy was carried out in Ireland.
During the autopsy in Ireland, methanol was found in her system but due to embalming fluid in her system the coroner could not definitively rule methanol poisoning as the cause of death. He did however make a recommendation that the Department of Foreign Affairs place a warning to people traveling to Indonesia about the dangers of methanol poisoning and tainted spirits in Indonesia which was a win for the Burke family.
Roe's sister, based in Australia, met with Liam's family in 2013 and her mother met with Lhani Davies later that year.
A fundraising masquerade memorial event called Fool's Ball (Roe's birthday was April 1st) was held in 2014 with generous support from friends and businesses donating prizes for an auction.
All proceeds went to the LIAM charity and have helped build this website.
For more information please see below links from Irish media:
