Family of mother and son in Purley train deaths horror left 'deeply shocked'

 
Woman and child killed: A police officer at the scene at Riddlesdown Station today Picture: Martin Pitchley
Picture: Martin Pitchley
James Pepper25 March 2013

The family of a woman who stepped in front of a train with her three-year-old son spoke today for the first time of their grief.

A young man, believed to be a relative of three-year-old Zaki, who was killed with Donna Oettinger at Riddlesdown station near Purley on Friday morning, said the family was deeply shocked.

Speaking outside the family home in Riddlesdown, he said: “We have lost a grandson and a nephew, the family have been through more than enough. You don’t know what it feels like to lose someone so young.”

Ms Oettinger, 41, is believed to have suffered from depression and her husband Mohamed Nasr and their friends have spoken of her fragile mental state. Speaking from Egypt, where he lives, Mr Nasr said: “Even if Donna was sick, it wasn’t my son’s fault. She loved me and she loved Zaki so much. She was a very good mother. Donna was so soft, so nice, so lovely. But she worried about everything at one time.”

The couple had been saving up so that Ms Oettinger and Zaki could move to Egypt. They met several years ago when Ms Oettinger was on holiday in Sharm el Sheikh and married in a Muslim ceremony. After she became pregnant, she moved back to England.

However, Mr Nasr said: “We planned to build an apartment with a view of the pyramids for Zaki. We agreed about it and everything was fine.”

Of his last phone conversation with his wife and son, he said: “We talked, we laughed so much — like always. Donna texted a picture of him.”

Now, though, he said “everything is black”. He said he was aware of Donna’s mental health problems and said she had told him she wished she could pay someone to take her life.

An unnamed friend said Ms Oettinger had been let down by doctors and that a suicide attempt last December put her in intensive care for two days.

Police are treating the deaths as suicide and murder.

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