That's a heck of a way to die . . .

The Daily Mail reports that a fugitive couple, who stole a yacht in Portugal to escape the police, found themselves in rather more trouble than they could handle.

A couple who stole a yacht apparently starved to death after it was damaged in a storm.

The story of their slow, agonising death was detailed in a vivid diary found on board.

Sharon Arthurs-Chegini, 46, wrote: 'The lights are going out in my heart.

'We have not eaten for four weeks. I dream of my mum's steak and kidney pie, roast dinner and sausage and mash.'

An inquest in Truro, Cornwall, was told that the former interior designer and her lover Peter Clarke, 49, had enjoyed a 'champagne and cocaine' lifestyle beyond their means.

They stole the yacht, the Skipper VII, while they were on the run in Portugal after skipping bail for a previous boat theft from Mylor harbour in Cornwall.

Months later, the Skipper was found adrift off the coast of Senegal, West Africa, with their bodies on board.

Mrs Arthurs-Chegini - her name was said to be the result of a marriage of convenience to an Iranian immigrant, for which she was paid £15,000 - wrote in her diary that the couple had tried to survive by drinking a combination of seawater and their own urine.

The mother of three added: 'We have been bashed about for days. Peter is collapsed in bed. I have been unable to get to him.

'Everything takes huge amounts of energy, having consumed no water yesterday. I see in a haze, between ten and 20ft. My heart and love goes out to my daughters and to my immediate family.'

The last entry was in June 2006, more than two months before the yacht was found by fishermen. It had a jammed rudder and a torn sail and its hull was encrusted with shellfish, suggesting it had been drifting for at least a month.

There's more at the link, including photographs.

I know that crime doesn't pay, but I wouldn't wish a death like that on anybody. May they find mercy in the hereafter.

Peter