AN inquest has been opened into the deaths of three Farnham family members killed in a car crash while on holiday in the Cayman Islands on May 2 this year.

The proceedings at Basingstoke Law Courts to investigate the deaths of Ian, 72, and Pamela Mansell, 74, and Marlene Wright, 69, were opened and an inquest review hearing is now scheduled to take place on Monday, September 11.

Tributes poured in to The Herald following the fatal crash, which happened in the East End area of the island just minutes from the holiday-makers’ hotel, and came just days after Ian and Pamela, described by friends as “the life and soul of the party” and Pamela’s sister Marlene had arrived in the Caribbean.

They died after their Kia Rio hire car was hit head-on by a Honda Accord shortly after 7pm, the 22-year-old Jamaican driver of the Honda was also killed in the crash, which local police described as the “worst ever” on Cayman’s roads.

Two additional passengers thought to be travelling in the open boot of the Honda, aged 11 and 26, were seriously injured but survived.

Ian, 72, and Pamela, 74, from Dockenfield, and Marlene, 68, from Liphook, were staying at Morrit’s Tortuga Club on the east coast of Grand Cayman, where they had stayed on numerous previous visits to the island.