A married couple who died in their campervan while working as traders at a New Forest cider festival were killed by carbon monoxide released from a leaky gas heater that should never have been used indoors, an inquest heard Wednesday. Christopher Coll, 45, and Kayleigh Coll, 38, the parents of four young children, had switched the heater on before falling asleep in chilly October temperatures — and never woke up.
The hearing at Winchester Coroner’s Court delivered the fullest account yet of a tragedy that has left four children in the care of relatives and drawn tens of thousands of pounds in donations from strangers moved by the couple’s story. The Colls were found dead on October 12 inside their white Nissan campervan, parked on Pound Lane in Burley, Hampshire.
The couple, who lived in Blandford Forum, Dorset, had been camping in a field at the rear of the New Forest Cider Festival. They were selling products through their business, Mystacoll’s Spirit, and had spent the previous night having drinks with a fellow attendee, Alexander Huxley. When they failed to appear the following morning to trade, another seller went to look for them.
A Heater Not Meant for Indoors
The inquest heard the gas heater the couple used was not designed for enclosed spaces because of the danger of carbon monoxide poisoning. Investigators also found the heater had not been screwed tightly onto its gas cylinder, allowing fumes to escape as the pair slept.
The person who discovered the bodies described being hit with a wall of gas and hearing a hissing noise when he opened the door of the campervan. The scene pointed immediately to the invisible, odorless gas that had filled the vehicle overnight.
Area coroner Nicholas Walker presided over the inquest that had been adjourned since the couple’s initial hearing in January 2026, when their preliminary cause of death was given as carbon monoxide toxicity.
How the Alarm Was Raised
Police were summoned after paramedics alerted officers to the couple’s deaths inside their vehicle just past noon BST on October 12. Authorities described the deaths as unexpected and later confirmed there were no suspicious circumstances.
Festival organizers New Forest Cider stressed that the incident happened in a private vehicle and was not connected to the event itself. In a statement issued after the deaths, the organizers said the couple’s warmth and passion shone through and that their loss had been felt by everyone who met them. The organizers said they were cooperating fully with the police inquiry.
According to tributes from their loved ones, Christopher Coll and Kayleigh Coll were adored by all who encountered them — full of life, compassionate and dedicated to those they loved.
Four Children Left Behind
The couple’s four children — Shyla, Alex, Kaizer and Emily — are now living with relatives. A GoFundMe page launched to support them has raised more than £30,000, with organizers later increasing the fundraising goal to help meet the children’s ongoing needs. Family members who have taken custody must now adapt their homes and vehicles to make everything safe and accessible for the children, according to an update on the page.
Tributes painted a portrait of a devoted partnership. On the fundraising page, loved ones described the couple as soulmates and remembered them as the kind of pair who made people believe in love again. Kayleigh Coll was recalled as a selfless woman who had always longed to be a mother and who showed those around her how to be the best kind of parent before she had children of her own.
Christopher Coll was described as warm, gentle and kind beneath a tough exterior, a man who had grown resilient after losing his brother and his mother. Family members said his values matched Kayleigh’s so closely that it seemed fitting the two had married.
A close friend, Kayleigh Jones, offered one of the most personal tributes. She said she had watched Kayleigh Coll grow into an incredible mother and that the couple deserved a happily ever after more than anyone she knew. Jones said the only comfort in the loss was that the pair had died together and peacefully.
The case stands as a stark warning about the dangers of gas appliances in confined spaces — a hazard that claimed two lives in the space of a single autumn night and left four children without their parents.