Dawn Strurgess becomes a victim of assassination, after being gifted a perfume bottle by her boyfriend.
In 2018, a boyfriend returned home with a gift for his 44-year-old girlfriend named Dawn Sturgess. It involved a perfume bottle which he had found in a charity collection bin. Being excited, she sprays bits of on her neck and wrist. 15 minutes later, she collapses on his bathroom floor. Turns out, the perfume bottle contained significant amount of Russian poison that could have killed ‘thousands,’ as per the inquiry counsel. She became a target of illegal assassination attempt, even when she wasn’t supposed to be.
The Russian poison named ‘Novichok’ (translation: Newcomer) is known to be developed during the time Soviet Union in the 1970s. Little bits of it, when sprayed on the enemy, can immediately stop their nervous system from working, leading to sudden death. The poison can come in various forms, such as liquid, and gas.
In Dawn’s case, it may have been ‘bad luck,’ as the poison was not meant to kill her, but to attack formal Russian double agents - Skripal family (a father and daughter duo, from Moscow, but living in the UK) by a Russian military intelligence squad. It was believed that the pair was spying for the Britain. One day, both the father and daughter were out for lunch when they collapsed on a bench in a shopping center. Turns out, the poison was smeared at their door handle, and they were suffering from the effects of that chemical. However, both of them made a full recovery.
According to their neighbours, Mr Skripal always confided that Putin would ‘get him,’ if he ever returned to Russia. Back in 2004, he was already charged with spying for Britain and was jailed for 13 years, until he got a presidential pardon and brought to the UK on a prisoner exchange. But now, after the whole poisoning incident, the Skripals live on a location secret to everyone else, for their own safety.
The UK government blamed Russia for such an attempt in murdering innocent people, such as, Dawn, but President Putin dismissed such accusations.
As for Dawn, she could have been saved upon further treatment, just like the Skripals were saved. However, her circumstances were quite “extraordinary.” According to a 2025 statement given by the inquiry team, “Even if she was going to be saved, her death was a ‘collateral damage from a reckless plot to attack the Skripal family.’” “Perhaps, it was intended to demonstrate the public of the Russian power.”
Dawn’s boyfriend, Charlie Rowley, has had a history of bin searching, hoping to find items that he could sell and make money. At the time of Dawn’s death, he also suffered effects of the poison and was admitted in the hospital. Although he is healthy today, he still appears to show symptoms of memory loss, that has kept the police from making accurate investigation on where exactly he may have picked the perfume bottle from.
Despite that, the inquiry team managed to find a CCTV video of him picking the bottle from one of the bins, just after two suspected Russian agents had visited the area of Salisbury, and have smudged poison on Mr Skripal’s door.
Charlie further revealed that the perfume bottle he found was packed in a sealed packaging, which leaves the investigation team believing that the Russian agents may have used a portable heat sealer right before discarding it. Or…. They must have carried two bottles, and this one that Charlie found was perhaps a spare one.
Does it suggests that they must have fulfilled their purpose for using the bottle, and didn’t mean harm to anyone else? Or could it be a moral lesson to Charlie and others that items kept in a bin are kept for a purpose not to get yourself involved in? Clearly, selling off recycled items from the bins, costed him the life of his partner.
Learning from a lesson is always a good idea. But it took a whole week after Dawn’s death for the police to warn the public not to pick up discarded items from the bins. Even then, there is no clear evidence that announcements were made, as it might ‘cause panic’ among the public.
