Mom Tells Family She’s Going on Vacation. They Later Get a Text Informing Them of Her Assisted Suicide

A daughter is sharing the heartbreaking way she discovered that her mother secretly traveled to Switzerland to end her life.

On July 8, Maureen Slough, a 58-year-old from Cavan, Ireland, told her family she was going on vacation to Lithuania with a friend. But she privately confided to two friends that she was actually going to Switzerland alone.

The next day, Slough’s daughter, Megan Royal, received a message from one of her mother’s close friends.

“A close friend of hers messaged me on the Wednesday night, possibly at like 10 p.m. I was in bed with the baby,” Royal, a mom of two, told the Irish Independent. “He just replied like, ‘Your mom’s in Switzerland.’ He’s like, ‘You have a right to know. I was sworn to secrecy. She’s there and she wants assisted suicide.’ I was so scared in that moment.”

Royal immediately called her dad, who tried reaching Slough in Switzerland. She said her mother promised to return home, but the following day around 1 p.m., Royal got a WhatsApp message saying her mother had died.

“What was worse was not only did I get the text on WhatsApp, they had advised me that her ashes would be posted to me in 6-8 weeks,” she said. “In that very moment, because I was alone, I just sat there with the baby and cried… I just felt like my world ended.”

The message came from Pegasos, an assisted dying nonprofit in Liestal, Switzerland. Slough had quietly applied and paid £15,000 to end her life.

According to Dignity in Dying, assisted suicide has been legal in Switzerland since 1942. Unlike euthanasia — which is illegal — assisted suicide means the patient takes the prescribed medication themselves rather than a doctor administering it.

After Slough’s death, her family began questioning how this could happen without their knowledge.

Royal described her mother as a “fiery, smart and dedicated woman.” But she said Slough had struggled with mental illness for years, including a past suicide attempt after losing her two younger sisters.

The family had tried to support her through difficult times. “No one’s saying she wasn’t feeling pain. Not pain good enough to go and end her life. She had a lot more life to live and give,” Royal said. “She was just in a dark time. She wasn’t terminally ill or, in my opinion, ill enough to go and do this and leave our family behind like that.”

In the weeks after her mother’s death, Royal said she discovered more about how Slough worked with Pegasos.

Pegasos did not respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment. The organization told Royal and the Irish Independent that Slough went through an assessment process, including an independent psychiatric evaluation confirming she was of sound mind.

The nonprofit said Slough explained her medical history and repeatedly stated she was living with “unbearable chronic pain.” They said they also received a letter from Royal saying she knew about her mother’s choice and, though she didn’t agree, she accepted it. According to Pegasos, Royal even confirmed this by email.

But Royal insists she never sent such an email. She now believes her mother may have created the message herself. She questions why Pegasos verified it only through email instead of calling her directly.

“This is all just a confusing story,” Royal said. “It wasn’t even my email. With anything these days, 99% of things you settle you get a call to your phone. So why is it not like this when you’re about to lose your life? If I want to set up a Roblox account for my 8-year-old I have to verify it on my phone.”

Royal said the process felt cold and impersonal. “She was in and out in two days and that was the end of their communication with me. Not even a condolence letter with her urn. Not even a fragile sticker on the box, just bounced around the back of a post van.”

Her uncle, Philip, a solicitor in the UK, has written to the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office asking it to investigate the case with Swiss authorities.

In his letter, he accused Pegasos of failing to follow its own policy of informing family members. “While I understand that Swiss law permits assisted dying, the Pegasos clinic has faced numerous criticisms in the UK for their practices with British nationals, and the circumstances in which my sister took her life are highly questionable,” he wrote, Right to Life UK reported.

Royal said her mother’s ashes finally arrived in early August, and the family held a funeral by the end of the month.

“We’re going to bury her with her two sisters,” she said, adding that she’s still struggling with her grief.