Actor, 27, died after taking cocktails of medication, inquest hears

A promising young actor who appeared on Coronation Street died after having taken a cocktail of ecstasy and ketamine at a music festival in Costa Rica, an inquest has heard. 

Joseph Wandera, 27, from Salford, Manchester, suffered a seizure at an apartment in the beach resort of Tamarindo where he had been attending the BPM music festival in January 2022. He died despite desperate attempts to save him.

His mother Claire Beatson told Rochdale Coroners’ Court yesterday that she was ‘shocked’ when she discovered the drugs her son had consumed in the central American country.

Mr Wandera had taken ecstasy, a class A drug, called ‘Magic’ and admitted to his girlfriend he had consumed a concoction of unknown drugs called ‘Pink Stuff’. 

The day before his death, the inquest heard he sent a text message to his girlfriend back in England, Alison Maloney, which said he was ‘getting on it like mad’ and had had taken some ‘pink stuff’.

During the morning of day of his death, January 16, Mr Wandera texted Ms Maloney: ‘Not gonna lie, I don’t know what was in the f***ing thing that I f***ing took. I can only type with my left hand and now I can’t see out of my left eye.’

He added he had been throwing up and had ‘not slept for two days’. 

Mr Wandera’s friend, Renay Zollner, said in a statement to the court that she first met the actor in Marbella, Spain and they ‘have become friends’, enjoying nights out in Manchester. 

Ms Zollner had also travelled to Costa Rica for the festival with some of his friends, the court was told.

She recalled how Mr Wandera ‘looked tired’ with bags under his eyes on the flight to central America, but said he was ‘otherwise healthy’. 

She said ‘the boys’ stayed in villa and she stayed in an apartment. 

Ms Zollner said the actor had been taking a type of MDMA (ecstasy) called ‘Magic’ although she wasn’t sure how much he had consumed. She said ‘everybody’ had been buying the drug from local dealers.

The witness said she had not witnessed Mr Wandera drinking any alcohol, but ‘a few days’ before his death she said he tried a drug called ‘Pink Stuff’, in the form of a pink powder she saw him ‘snort’. 

After one night out, about a week into the holiday, Ms Zollner said she fell asleep on the sofa of her apartment at 3am on January 16 when she said she received a WhatsApp message from Mr Wandera asking her if she could pick him up.

She admitted she was ‘annoyed’, but agreed and spent 50 minutes driving to a location he had sent to her ‘in the middle of a forest by the coast’. When she found him, she noted bags under his eyes but she said this was ‘normal’.

‘All of us were sleep deprived because of all the partying, drinking and drugs,’ she added. 

Ms Zollner told the inquest how Mr Wandera could not provide her with the location of his villa so she drove back to her apartment where she refused his suggestion he sleep on the sofa and told him to sleep on a bed. 

She put a blanket over him, she said. Ms Zollner said the actor was ‘not hot or sweaty’ and she went to bed. 

Fidel, one of the boys who had also stayed at her apartment, later woke her up at 7.15am to say Mr Wandera was ‘fitting on the floor’, she told the inquest. Ms Zollner said she told him to put him in the recovery position. 

Five minutes later, Fidel shouted at her to come down and he ‘looked panicked’.

She said she found Mr Wandera on the floor and could not find a pulse, but did detect ‘some breathing’. The ambulance service was called and Ms Zollner said thy were advised to ‘start CPR’, with Fidel doing chest compressions. 

When paramedics arrived at the apartment, they said ‘nothing more could be done’, according to Ms Zollner.

Ms Beatson, Mr Wandera’s mother, told the inquest her son had been raised in Salford and Prestwich before going onto the study the performing arts.

He also worked at JD Sports and Greggs after his studies and he was signed up by an acting agency where he also worked as an administrator, Ms Beatson told the court. He ‘loved’ the performing arts, she added.

Mr Wandera was a ‘huge’ Manchester United fan who followed the team home and away, said his mother. He was only a social drinker and every year attended Manchester’s Parklife music festival, the court heard.

Ms Beatson said her son smoked cannabis when he was younger and ‘occasionally’ took ecstasy, although she said taking drugs ‘wasn’t something that was his usual behaviour’. She admitted she was ‘shocked’ when she found out what her son had consumed in Costa Rica because ‘he’s never taken anything like this before’.

Her son enjoyed travelling and had been to Thailand with his ‘acting friends’. She said of her son: ‘He was a humorous, kind young man who enjoyed entertaining people and loved life.’

Ms Beatson said she learned from her son that he had booked a two-week holiday to Costa Rica flew out from London Heathrow on January 10, 2022. While he was away, he sent her some pictures and a couple of text messages from the trip.

In the last one, dated in the afternoon of January 15, he said he had been at a party and he said he was ‘having a good time’. She learned of her son’s death from his girlfriend, the court was told.

The inquest heard Mr Wandera suffered a serious assault in Manchester city centre at 1am on December 16, 2019, when he was attacked by ‘a group of unknown people’. 

He was taken to Manchester Royal Infirmary with broken vertebrae in his back, lacerations which required staples and bruising. 

He was discharged eleven days later. However, Mr Wandera only reported it to the police 18 days after the attack and detectives were unable to locate any CCTV because of the delay, the inquest heard.

Ms Beatson told the inquest her son went to a private physiotherapist following the assault he complained of feeling ‘tingling’ down one arm.

Forensic pathologist Dr Charles Wilson conducted a post mortem examination of Mr Wandera when his partial, embalmed remains were repatriated following a post mortem examination in Costa Rica. 

He noted a fracture to the spine but said it was ‘unlikely this would have caused or contributed to the death’.

Dr Wilson said there was ‘not enough material’ for him to request a UK toxicological report and instead had to rely on the ‘fairly scant’ toxicological report from Costa Rica which revealed there was ketamine and MDMA in Mr Wandera’s blood although it did not reveal the concentration of these drugs in his system.

The pathologist said the affect of these two drugs together ‘can be more profound’. Detective Inspector Mark Astbury said he had been unable to trace one of the friends who had been on the trip while another had ‘passed’ away’ since.

However, he concluded there were no suspicious circumstances and that Mr Wandera had voluntarily consumed the drugs found in his system.

Recording a conclusion of misadaventure, area coroner Catherine McKenna said the medical cause of death was ‘ketamine and MDMA toxicity’. 

She added: ‘Joseph took these drugs of his own free will and I’m satisfied he did not intend this outcome.’

The coroner said she hoped the death ‘serves as a warning to people taking recreational drugs’, adding: ‘Joseph was a talented, gregarious and joyful young man who had a promising career ahead of him and everything to live for.’

On Mr Wandera’s actor’s profile, it was stated that he started out as part of the MaD Theatre Company, based in Monsall, where he performed at schools, theatres and festivals across Manchester.

He performed at the Manchester Fringe Festival in 2012, and had television roles in Scott & Bailey and Moving On. 

He also featured in a pilot for BBC Comedy Showcase and appeared in two reconstructions for BBC’s Inside Out. 

In 2018, Mr Wandera appeared on Coronation Street as a buyer interested in purchasing Eileen Grimshaw’s car.