This will make a great movie:
Posted: Fri Jul 24, 2009 10:36 amhttp://news.ninemsn.com.au/world/841218 ... ved-at-sea
A fugitive British couple who fled police on a stolen yacht probably starved to death at sea, an inquest has heard.
Peter Clarke, 49, and Sharon Arthurs-Chegini, 46, were found dead in September 2006 off the west coast of Africa with a diary documenting their agonizing deaths.
It is thought they resorted to drinking sea water and their own urine after becoming lost after their vessel was damaged in a storm, the Daily Mail reports.
"The lights are going out in my heart," Arthurs-Chegini, a former interior designer, wrote in a red journal.
"We have not eaten for four weeks.
"I dream of my mum's steak and kidney pie, roast dinner, and sausage and mash."
The pair, who were dubbed a modern-day Bonnie and Clyde, stole the yacht in Portugal while on the run for another boat theft in the English county of Cornwall.
Clarke had set up a financial consultancy in Cornwall after serving two jail terms for fraud and leading a "globe-trotting" lifestyle, the inquest heard.
The couple fled their home country after being granted bail in December 2005 and then subsequently succumbed to a "champagne and cocaine" lifestyle, Ms Arthurs-Chegini's stepdaughter said at the inquest.
It was not until nine months later that their bodies were found drifting at sea, three months after Arthurs-Chegini's last diary entry.
"We have been bashed about for days," the mother-of-three's last diary entry said.
"Peter is collapsed in bed. I have been unable to get to him.
"Everything takes huge amounts of energy, having consumed no water yesterday.
"My heart and love goes out to my daughters and to my immediate family."
Coroner Dr Emma Carlyon recorded an open verdict, saying their bodies were very badly decomposed and there was little evidence to indicate how the couple died other than the diary entries.
A fugitive British couple who fled police on a stolen yacht probably starved to death at sea, an inquest has heard.
Peter Clarke, 49, and Sharon Arthurs-Chegini, 46, were found dead in September 2006 off the west coast of Africa with a diary documenting their agonizing deaths.
It is thought they resorted to drinking sea water and their own urine after becoming lost after their vessel was damaged in a storm, the Daily Mail reports.
"The lights are going out in my heart," Arthurs-Chegini, a former interior designer, wrote in a red journal.
"We have not eaten for four weeks.
"I dream of my mum's steak and kidney pie, roast dinner, and sausage and mash."
The pair, who were dubbed a modern-day Bonnie and Clyde, stole the yacht in Portugal while on the run for another boat theft in the English county of Cornwall.
Clarke had set up a financial consultancy in Cornwall after serving two jail terms for fraud and leading a "globe-trotting" lifestyle, the inquest heard.
The couple fled their home country after being granted bail in December 2005 and then subsequently succumbed to a "champagne and cocaine" lifestyle, Ms Arthurs-Chegini's stepdaughter said at the inquest.
It was not until nine months later that their bodies were found drifting at sea, three months after Arthurs-Chegini's last diary entry.
"We have been bashed about for days," the mother-of-three's last diary entry said.
"Peter is collapsed in bed. I have been unable to get to him.
"Everything takes huge amounts of energy, having consumed no water yesterday.
"My heart and love goes out to my daughters and to my immediate family."
Coroner Dr Emma Carlyon recorded an open verdict, saying their bodies were very badly decomposed and there was little evidence to indicate how the couple died other than the diary entries.
