THE moment rescuers dragged her husband’s lifeless body from the Caribbean sea is burned into widow Sue Fawcett’s memory.

Roy had been snorkelling off coral beach Paradise Island two days before he and wife Sue were due to return from their dream holiday to the Dominican Republic.

He was found face down in the clear blue waters. Sue said she could remember Roy being dragged from the water, his face a horrible purple-blue colour.

This week, 56-year-old Sue is hoping a Staffordshire coroner will solve the mystery of how otherwise fit-and-healthy Roy, 58, died.

Sue said: “Our family can’t believe that Roy is no longer with us and each day we struggle to come to terms with what happened on the day he died.

“We know that the inquest is going to be an emotional time and bring back painful memories but we just hope our family gets the answers we deserve about the events of what happened on that day.”

Support worker Sue, from Redhouse, said the past year had been hell without her husband of 27 years.

She described Roy as a gentle and kind family man: “It’s been a really hard year. We’ve missed him so much.” Six months after he died, Roy and Sue’s first granddaughter was born, followed three months later by another two granddaughters.

“We want to try and find a way forward. I’m hoping the inquest will give us that. I’m hoping it will give us some sort of closure,” Sue added.

The couple first met in Staffordshire when they were teenagers: “I was 16 and he was 18. We met at Christmas, started talking and I saw him over the Christmas holidays. Come January, he went back to university in Newcastle-upon-Tyne. We both went our separate ways.

“We both married other people, both marriages broke down.

“Then we bumped into each other on a night out in Rugeley, Staffordshire. For the life of me I couldn’t remember his name and he wouldn’t tell me. All night he said, ‘I’m not telling you.’ He wanted me to remember.

“At the end of the night I was in the chip shop with my mates on the way home. The next minute, Roy came running down the street to us. He walked us home.

“Six months and a day later we were married.”

The couple, who had three children between them, flew to the Dominican Republic on September 30 last year with holiday company Thomson.

“We’d always wanted to go,” said Sue. “We just decided last year to go. We went for two weeks and we’d been out there for 12 days when Roy died.”

Roy was on a snorkelling excursion when he was found face down in the water. He was pulled to the beach and efforts were made to resuscitate him. Roy was pronounced dead at the local hospital a short time later.

Now, she’s hoping Staffordshire’s coroner will help provide her family with answers.

Roy, who worked as a self-employed project manager for firms linked to Vodafone in Newbury, showed no apparent signs of being unwell in the days leading up to his death.: “He’d be playing beach volleyball for an hour in the morning while we were over there.”

The family instructed law firm Irwin Mitchell to try and piece together the events that led up to Roy’s death.

Lesley Edwards, a personal injury lawyer at the firm, said: “What should have been a dream holiday for Sue and Roy ended in the most tragic circumstances.

“Unsurprisingly Sue and the rest of her family have a number of questions about the events what happened in the lead up to Roy’s death. They are hoping that the inquest provides them with the vital answers they are seeking.

“If the inquest highlights any failings in the safety measures which were in place during the expedition, it is crucial new procedures are put in place to stop similar tragedies in the future.”