Joseph Wandera appeared in Coronation Street back in 2018 (Image: ITV)
A rising star in the acting world tragically collapsed and died after consuming a mix of drugs while at a dance festival in Costa Rica, an inquest heard. Joseph Wandera, aged 27, experienced a seizure a week into his holiday.
Despite desperate efforts to revive him, Joseph passed away in an apartment at the Tamarindo beach resort, where he was attending the BPM music festival in January 2022.
His mother, Claire Beatson, expressed her shock to Rochdale Coroners’ Court on Tuesday, September 18, upon learning that Joseph had taken ecstasy and confessed to his girlfriend that he had ingested a mysterious drug blend known as “Pink Stuff”.
The day prior to his untimely death, Joseph sent a text to his girlfriend in England, Alison Maloney, stating he was “getting on it like mad”, according to MEN.
On January 16, the morning he died, he messaged his girlfriend saying: “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 also mentioned that he had been vomiting and hadn’t slept for two days. In a statement to the court, Joseph’s friend Renay Zollner, who first met him in Marbella and enjoyed nights out with him in Manchester, said they “have become friends”. She was also in Costa Rica for the festival with some of Joe’s friends, the inquest was informed, reports the Mirror.
She remembered that Joseph “looked tired” on the outbound flight but appeared “otherwise healthy”. She revealed that while ‘the boys’ stayed in a villa, she lodged in an apartment and noted that Joseph had been consuming MDMA (ecstasy), though she was uncertain about the quantity.
She mentioned that “everybody” was purchasing it from local dealers. She stated that she hadn’t seen Joseph consume any alcohol but disclosed that he tried a drug known as Pink Stuff, a pink powder which she witnessed him “snort”, a “few days” prior to his death.
After a night out one week into their holiday, Ms Zollner recalled falling asleep on her apartment’s sofa at 3am on January 16 when she received a WhatsApp message from Joseph requesting her to pick him up.
She agreed and spent 50 minutes driving to a location he had sent her “in the middle of a forest by the coast”. Upon finding him, she noticed bags under his eyes but dismissed this as “normal”.
She added: “All of us were sleep deprived because of all the partying, drinking and drugs”. Ms Zollner mentioned that Joseph couldn’t provide her with the location of his villa so she drove back to her apartment where she rejected his proposal to sleep on the sofa and instructed him to sleep on a bed.
She covered him with a blanket, she said.
Ms Zollner recounted that Joseph appeared “not hot or sweaty” before she retired for the night. The following morning, at 7.15am, Fidel, one of the boys staying over, woke her with the news that Joseph was “fitting on the floor”.
She instructed him to place Joseph in the recovery position. Shortly after, a distressed Fidel called for her to come downstairs, where she discovered Joseph unresponsive on the floor. Despite finding a faint breath, Ms Zollner could not detect a pulse.
Upon calling the ambulance service, they were advised to “start CPR”, with Fidel performing chest compressions. However, when paramedics arrived, they concluded “nothing more could be done”.
During the inquest, Ms Beatson, Joseph’s mother, shared that her son grew up in Salford and Prestwich and pursued performing arts. Post-studies, he worked at JD Sports and Greggs and was represented by an acting agency, also contributing as an administrator.
Ms Beatson highlighted Joseph’s passion for performing arts, noting his appearances in Coronation Street, Scott and Bailey, and Moving On. She described him as a social drinker who enjoyed attending Manchester’s Parklife music festival annually.
Ms Beatson revealed that her son had previously smoked cannabis and “occasionally” indulged in ecstasy, though she emphasised that drug-taking “wasn’t something that was his usual behaviour”. She admitted to being “shocked” upon discovering what her son had taken in Costa Rica, stating, “he’s never taken anything like this before”.
Describing her son as a vivacious young man with a passion for travel, Ms Beatson shared that he had journeyed to Thailand alongside his “acting friends”. She fondly remembered him as “He was a humorous, kind young man who enjoyed entertaining people and loved life.”
