Death in fire at Lime Tree restaurant building might be a 'homicide'

Geri Rapo, 22, was discovered dead at an address above the Lime Tree restaurant on Bolton Road on December 2.

The discovery came five days after a fire which saw firefighters from at least five fire stations battle the blaze for a number of hours.

At the time a cannabis farm was found but Mr Rapo was not found until a call of concern for welfare by the family and by a friend.

At Bolton Coroner's Court this week, at the opening of an inquest, assistant coroner Simon Nelson said the death might have been a "homicide" according to one line of investigation by GMP's Major Incident Team. At the time of writing this is still to be confirmed by the force itself.

A Police Coroner's Officer, Andrew Pickles, told Mr Nelson the investigation is continuing.

Mr Pickles said: "There is an investigation and it is continuing.

"The family are looking to repatriate Mr Rapo [to Albania]."

A postmortem ascertained the cause of death was the inhalation of smoke.

Mr Nelson adjourned the inquest until a date to be determined next year.

On December 2, DCI Liz Hopkinson, of GMP's Major Incident Team, said: "I speak on behalf of the investigation team when I say the thoughts of everyone remain with the family. Officers have been deployed to support them at this difficult time and we can only imagine the pain of their loss.

"Work remains ongoing with regards to the activities at the building in the time up to the fire. We are committed to establishing the circumstances which led to this tragic event and we will leave no stone unturned when it comes to uncovering any criminal offences which might have taken place."

Anyone with information can contact police on 101 or the LiveChat on gmp.police.uk. They can contact Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.

The Bolton News asked GMP for a comment.

This article was written by Jack Tooth. To contact him, email jack.tooth@newsquest.co.uk or follow @JTRTooth on Twitter.