British-based couple found dead beside hot tub may have died as one tried to help the other out after an accident, Spanish cops believe

Spanish police believe a London-based couple who were found dead beside a hot tub in a luxury villa on Tuesday may have died as one tried to help the other out following an accident. 

The couple who were found dead in the seaside resort town of Cullera on Spain’s east coast, halfway between Valencia and Benidorm, were named as Irish woman Thomasina McArdle, 51, and her husband, 45-year-old New Zealander Patrick Tobin. 

The couple had lived and worked in London for several years and were staying in Cullera where they were discovered dead by their two teenage sons on Tuesday afternoon at approximately 5pm.

The two boys, aged 14 and 16 and understood to have special needs, searched the luxury villa for their parents before discovering them dead near the hot tub on the lowest floor and raising the alarm with a neighbour.

Post-mortem exams conducted on Ms McArdle, from the Drumhowan area of Co Monaghan, and Mr Tobin ruled out foul play, and no signs of forced entry or suspicious activity on nearby CCTV cameras were detected.

Spain’s Civil Guard police are now following the theory that a medical emergency may have caused Ms McArdle to lose consciousness and her husband to die while trying to pull her from the jacuzzi.

Marks and scratches found on both bodies as well as blood in the cloudy water of the jacuzzi and a strong chemical smell were noted by police.

Valencia newspaper Las Provincias reported yesterday: ‘The rescue attempt resulted in a second fatality. The Civil Guard is investigating whether the man suffered a fatal electric shock while handling the faulty hot tub, or whether he was poisoned by inhaling toxic fumes’.

Police are also not ruling out whether Mr Tobin may have suffered a heart attack due to the intense physical exertion and stress of trying to rescue his wife.

It’s understood that toxicology reports may piece together whether Ms McArdle suffered a medical incident due to the buildup of gases or some other substance in the hot tub.

Ms McArdle had been working at the London consultancy firm Turner and Townsend as a quantity surveyor in the high-end hotels industry for the past five and a half years.

The Monaghan native had worked in the UK for the past 30 years since graduating from Trinity College Dublin and had run her own quantity surveying firm as well as serving as partner in another before becoming head of hotels at her current company where she had worked on famous luxury sites including the Ritz.

Her father, Tommy McArdle, had been a director for RTÉ and goalkeeper for the Monaghan senior county football team in the 1950s and 60s.

Mr Tobin is understood to have worked in the tech industry in London.

Relatives of Ms McArdle arrived in Spain late on Wednesday to comfort the couple’s children who are believed to be traumatised after discovering the bodies.

The pair had alerted the property owner who lived nearby and called the police, who then went through contacts in one the boys’ phones and got in touch with family members in Monaghan.

It’s understood that three relatives, including an uncle of the teenagers, flew out to comfort and care for them after the harrowing event and landed at 3am on Wednesday morning, less than 12 hours after the bodies were found.

The Department of Foreign Affairs confirmed that it was providing consular assistance in this case, while New Zealand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated it was aware of Mr Tobin’s death and was assisting his relatives at home and in the UK.