LINDA Speirs can still hear the words echoing through her head: “Charmain’s gone.” They came down the line from an unknown number in Ghana.
“I said: ‘What do you mean, Charmain’s gone? Gone where?’” says Linda, 72, from Arbroath, Angus. “But then it registered and I threw the phone to my husband Peter.”

Charmain Speirs married popular evangelical preacher Eric Adusah in 2014, within weeks of meeting him

Charmain’s mum Linda is determined to find out the truth about her death Credit: Derek Ironside/Newsline Media
It was March 23, 2015. Four weeks earlier, 41-year-old Charmain had travelled to the African country with her husband Eric Adusah.
A popular evangelical preacher who appeared on Christian TV shows and claimed to be a prophet and part of the Ghanaian royal family, he had told Charmain that they needed to go to Ghana because his father had died.
But now, Charmain was lying dead in a hotel room 5,600-miles from home – at three months pregnant.
Linda tells Fabulous: “When I woke up that day, I noticed I had several missed calls from a foreign number. Initially, I thought it was Charmain. But a man on the line said: ‘She’s gone. She’s no longer with us.’

“I didn’t know who it was, and still don’t. I fell to the floor crying. I couldn’t take it in. Charmain was fit and healthy, there was no reason why she should be dead.”
Linda’s daughter was found in the bathtub of her room, several days after Eric had left her there and flown back to the UK.
He was charged with murder, but the case collapsed after a post-mortem found heroin in her system and police accepted evidence suggesting she may have been suicidal.
Her family strongly reject that version of events, and a new BBC podcast and documentary, Charmain And The Prophet, has raised fresh questions about Eric’s account and the police investigation. For over a decade, Linda – who says she believes her daughter was murdered – has fought for answers.

Charmain grew up in Arbroath in a close-knit family. “When I think of her, I remember her smile,” says Linda. “She was kind, caring and loving.”
Charmain worked from a young age, picking fruit and vegetables in the fields, then later in bars and clubs. She had three younger brothers: one of whom was tragically killed in a car crash in 2000 when he was 21, while another fell into heroin addiction.
But Charmain threw herself into holding her family together, later helping her brother through rehab. In 2005, she enrolled in a photojournalism course in Swansea and relocated there.
In 2007, she gave birth to her son Isaac, but the relationship with his father didn’t last. Indeed, by the time Isaac was born, Charmain had a string of troubled relationships behind her, including one that turned abusive.
During her pregnancy, Charmain met a midwife who took her under her wing and introduced her to Liberty Church, a modern community-based local church. She built a strong network of friends and lived happily in Swansea for several years, working in admin in a hospital.
“Charmain loved being a mum,” says Linda. “She would take Isaac to dinner or to the cinema and call it her ‘date’. We were constantly in touch – she’d call me three times a day.”

Eric leaving the inquest into his wife’s death Credit: Alamy Live News.

Charmain, pictured with Eric and son Isaac, was found in the bathtub of her hotel room in Ghana Credit: Diyan Kantardzhiev
But Charmain missed having a partner to share her life with, so she signed up to a Christian dating site and met Eric Adusah in 2014.
He had his own evangelical ministry, Global Light Revival Church, with branches in London, Scotland, Dublin and later the US, where he preached regularly and built his following. To those who knew him, he was a charismatic figure.

Within weeks of meeting Eric, Charmain told friends they were going to get married.
Linda recalls: “She phoned me up and said: ‘Mum, I’m getting married.’ I said: ‘What? I didn’t even know you had a boyfriend.’ When she told me he was a pastor, I was shocked, as she hadn’t been religious growing up.”

Charmain grew up in Arbroath in a close-knit family Credit: Derek Ironside/Newsline Media

Charmain caring for Isaac as a single mum after a string of troubled relationships Credit: Derek Ironside/Newsline Media
Linda met Eric with Charmain for the first time in Edinburgh a few weeks later.
“He was very dismissive,” she remembers. “The more I asked questions, the more he wouldn’t answer anything. He made the excuse that he wanted to go to bed because he’d had a long journey. I didn’t see him again until the night before the wedding.”
Charmain and Eric got married on September 27, 2014. Charmain arrived in a white gown, smiling for guests as bagpipes played. Eric wore a kilt and had an entourage from his church.
But despite the smiles, Linda suspected something wasn’t right. Though she didn’t know it at the time, Charmain had already confided in friends that Eric had anger issues and was controlling. Many close friends and family were not invited to the wedding.
Afterwards, Charmain and Isaac moved to Essex with Eric, who was setting up a ministry there. She became increasingly isolated.
“She didn’t like it at all,” says Linda. “She didn’t know anybody. She wanted to go out and get a job, but she claimed he wouldn’t allow her. She became more withdrawn and the phone calls slowed down. She just wasn’t Charmain any more.”

Speaking on the podcast, Isaac, now 19, describes a volatile home environment. “[Eric] controlled her phone, her money, her clothes, every aspect of her life.”
Isaac also claims Eric was violent towards him and his mother. “He’d hit her a lot harder than he’d hit me. He was aggressive. What prophet would hit their wife?” he said.

The couple were outwardly happy Credit: Derek Ironside/Newsline Media

Charmain with Linda, Isaac and best friend Nomie before meeting Eric Credit: supplied by Linda Speirs
Christmas 2014 was a low point for Charmain.
“She was very quiet,” Linda recalls. “She said Eric had locked himself in the bedroom and was on his laptop. She sounded as though she was about to cry. She said Isaac got nothing for Christmas, there was no food in the house, no decorations, no tree.
“She was all for leaving him. She claimed she was not even allowed to wash their clothes together in case Eric’s clothes got contaminated by theirs. I said: ‘That’s not a marriage, Charmain.’”
Linda claims Charmain was even forced to pay the maintenance money from Isaac’s father into Eric’s bank account.
Just a few weeks later, Charmain told a worried Linda she was pregnant. The following month, they saw each other in person when Charmain made a brief visit back to Scotland.
Linda claims that by then, her daughter was determined to leave Eric. Friends also say she had spoken about ending the marriage.

“She said: ‘I’ve got nothing left, Mum. I don’t know who I’m married to.’ She said she was moving back up here with Isaac. She’d had enough,” explains Linda, who believes that Charmain also suspected Eric was in a relationship with another woman in Ghana, and was determined to find out the truth while she was there for Eric’s father’s funeral, after Eric had claimed he’d died.
Charmain travelled to Ghana on February 24, initially staying with a reverend and his wife near Accra, before Eric arrived on March 3.

Charmain’s son Isaac wants justice for his mum Credit: BBC

Police initially treated the case of Charmain’s death as suspicious, and Eric was charged with murder, but prosecutors in Ghana dropped the case in October 2015 Credit: Derek Ironside/Newsline Media
For the first few weeks, as the pair travelled around, she kept in touch with family and friends, then on March 16, they checked into room 112 at the Mac-Dic Royal Plaza Hotel in Koforidua.
They spent the evening of March 17 together, before Eric left at around 12.30am on March 18, saying he needed to travel to Accra for a 6am meeting.
When he left, he reportedly told hotel staff not to disturb his wife as she was resting. He returned to the UK later that day.
Between March 20-22, Linda had messages from Charmain’s phone and from Eric’s, stating she was travelling or unwell, but no details given.
On March 22, Eric told Linda that Charmain was in hospital and asked for £1,000 so he could return to Ghana for her. She did not give him the money.
Deeply worried and suspicious, Linda reported Charmain missing that same day.

On March 23, she received the call informing her that her daughter had died. Unable to contact Charmain, hotel staff had entered the room on March 20 and found her dead.
A post-mortem held on March 26 concluded Charmain died from heroin poisoning, but there were no signs of long-term drug use, no needle marks, and no history that matched the claims Eric made to police that his wife was mentally unwell and a suicide risk.
Speaking on the podcast, Isaac was unequivocal, saying: “She would never take heroin. I know for a fact she would never do anything like that.”
Police initially treated the case as suspicious, and Eric was charged with murder. But prosecutors in Ghana dropped the case in October 2015, citing insufficient evidence. No one was held accountable for Charmain’s death.
The podcast identifies several inconsistencies in Eric’s account and the subsequent police investigation. The pastor Eric said he was meeting in Accra did not confirm the meeting took place.
Witnesses said two men entered the hotel room with Eric on March 17, yet he did not mention them in his statements. Eric also presented text messages suggesting Charmain was suicidal, but their wording and origin were questioned by experts, and not forensically verified.
The podcast also highlights that police did not fully investigate key areas, including other people in the hotel room, Eric’s movements, and his use of multiple names, and found no clear evidence for some claims, including the reason given for the trip to Ghana – that Eric’s father had died.
Linda was left to try to find answers herself. “I wasn’t getting any phone calls from anybody in Ghana. I wasn’t getting any information from the embassy or from the police here in the UK. Nobody was doing anything to help,” she says.
Meanwhile, Isaac went to live with his father. It took the family eight months to repatriate Charmain’s body after an online appeal for funds. A post-mortem in Britain and an inquest failed to establish how she died.
The strain took a huge toll on Linda.

“I had to stay off work for six months. I wasn’t eating and went from a size 14 to size six,” she says.
When BBC journalist Myles Bonnar contacted her, she was able to provide a treasure-trove of info.
Myles tells Fabulous: “Linda had Ghanaian police interview statements, the autopsy report and a massive folder she’d built up over the years. There were so many red flags, it was a no-brainer that we should look into it.”
Myles faced significant challenges while investigating the death.
In Ghana, every interview had to be personally approved by multiple senior police figures. Key interviews were pulled at the last minute and witnesses were warned not to speak.
Responses from Ghanaian authorities never came. The team also approached Eric, who denies any wrongdoing, at his new home in the US. He refused to answer questions and issued a complaint. Likewise, our offer of a right of reply to Eric went unanswered.
Myles hopes the podcast may force renewed scrutiny and expose failures in how Ghanaian authorities handled the case.
He also notes a legal mechanism in England and Wales that allows police to work with foreign forces when British citizens die abroad.
For Isaac, the impact has been lifelong. Speaking on the podcast, he said: “All I’ve ever wanted is justice for my mum. Nothing about it has ever sat right with me.”
Similarly, for Linda, the pain never stops. “I look at photos and I think, what would she be doing now? And this is why I’ve been fighting for Charmain, because I knew something must have happened in that hotel room. I said it from day one.”

Disclosure: Charmain And The Prophet is available on BBC Sounds, and the TV documentary is on iPlayer.