After an agonising three years and eight gruelling days in a Chesterfield courtroom, the Cusack family were told yesterday that they must wait another five months for the answers they so desperately seek about the death of their daughter Maddy.
Every day, they walked into the Coroner's Court in the sleepy market town for the inquiry into their daughter's death, greeting every lawyer and member of the press with a warm 'good morning', and every late afternoon they headed home to unpack what they had heard.
They hoped they were heading for the end of this latest ordeal but the court was told that additional documents had been lodged and that further witnesses needed to be called, hence the delay.
It has been nearly three years since Maddy Cusack was found dead at the family home in Horsley, Derbyshire, by her father, David. She was 27. It was September 20, 2023, and in footballing terms it was the beginning of a new season.
But Cusack had been signed off sick by Sheffield United for a couple of weeks and had returned to the family home amid deteriorating mental health. No longer did she feel able to attend the club she had grown up supporting, proudly pulling on the No 8 shirt every weekend for the women's team as well as carrying out her role in the club's marketing department.
