COCAINE DEATH ENDS BATTLE FOR CHILDREN

A child custody battle involving one of America's richest families ended
yesterday with the discovery of the body of the children's mother, killed by
an overdose of cocaine, in a rundown "crack house".

Loren Walgreen, 31, had been fighting to see her children since her husband,
Tad, agreed to let his father and stepmother adopt them in 1996.

Mr Walgreen, scion of the family that built up an pounds 11.4 billion empire
of pharmacies and general stores, also died of a cocaine overdose three
years ago in a scruffy flat in Chicago. Mrs Walgreen originally consented to
the adoption of Alex, now 10, and Brook, eight, but recently revived her
bitter battle with the children's grandparents to obtain visiting rights. A
hearing was to be held next month.

Charles Walgreen III, Tad's father, and his second wife, Kathleen, won
custody of the children in a court adoption hearing in 1996. It followed the
descent into drug and alcohol abuse by Mrs Walgreen and her husband who,
despite standing to inherit millions from his father, had become estranged
and never visited the huge family mansion in a Chicago suburb.

Mrs Walgreen was found dead in a seedy neighbourhood known for its crack
houses, where drug addicts gather. She is believed to have taken an
accidental overdose. Alan Toback, her lawyer, condemned the Walgreen family
for doing nothing to help her, he said: "The Walgreens have more money than
God, but they did nothing except take her children from her."