Chilling CCTV footage captured a mother-of-four laughing and smiling just hours before she was found dead at home.
Ramia Malhi, 48, had been to the gym when she popped into a newsagents near her home in Newcastle.
She bought a bottle of vodka and diet coke and stayed to chat with shop owners Naveen and Jolly Vij, who revealed Ms Malhi spoke about her future plans with her family.
But Ms Malhi, who had suffered two black eyes after apparently falling over days before her death, was found dead just six hours later on Wednesday October 4.
Ramia Malhi, 48, was found dead at her home in Newcastle just hours after being caught on CCTV laughing and joking while buying vodka from a shop
Ms Mahli posted this picture from a hospital bed days before her death. It was captioned: ‘Here we go again fell over and hurt my nose got to (sic) black eyes look like I’ve been in a round with Tyson’
It is not known how she died.
Police launched an investigation and a 43-year-old man was arrested but has been released without charge.
Now Mr and Mrs Vij have told how Ramia was ‘happy’ and was proudly showing them pictures of her family as she had plans for the future to hopefully open a business.
Mother-of-two Mrs Vij, 40, who runs High Heaton News, said: ‘She came from the gym and bought some vodka and diet coke and started talking to me.
‘She was showing me pictures of her family, her brother’s 40th birthday party, her two sons and two daughters.
‘She was happy and was asking me if I ever wanted to take time off because I have small children, she could take over the business.
This CCTV footage captured Ramia Mahli chatting happily to shopkeepers before her death. The 48-year-old mother-of-four was found dead at her home
The mother-of-four, was found dead at her home in Newcastle (pictured). Mystery surrounds her death and a shopkeeper who spoke to her hours before she died said she ‘was full of life’
Naveen (left) and Jolly Vij, who run High Heaton News in Newcastle, were left shocked to hear Ms Malhi had died hours after buying vodka and diet coke from the store
‘She told me our shop belonged to her father-in-law before my father-in-law took it over. She showed me pictures of her family, she seemed happy.
‘She told me she had family in Birmingham. She had two daughters and one son was working in China as a teacher there. She had another son, the youngest was 20-years-old.
‘She was full of plans to do something with her life. She said she earned £250 a week at the Cobalt Business Park and wanted to do more for herself.
‘I’m so shocked that she has died. She was full of life when I was speaking to her only hours before.’
Police were called to Ms Malhi’s home at 12.48am on Wednesday by the ambulance service.
Ms Malhi, who hosted her own radio show on Spice FM, was pictured in a newsagents near her home. The shopkeepers told of their shock when they heard news of her death
Ms Mahli had been speaking about the future but was found dead hours later
Only days before her death Ms Malhi, who hosted her own radio show on Spice FM, had posted a selfie on her Facebook page with two black eyes.
It was taken while she was lying in her bed at Newcastle’s Freeman Hospital on September 25 and she wrote: ‘Here we go again fell over and hurt my nose got to (sic) black eyes look like I’ve been in a round with Tyson’.
Mrs Vij added: ‘When I was talking to her I noticed she had a black eye and had covered it with foundation.’
Mr Vij, 45, whose family have ran the newsagents for over 20 years, said: ‘She came into the shop on Tuesday and was casually chatting with my wife, then I started chatting to her. I noticed she had a black eye, it was blue, black in colour, but she covered it with make-up.
‘I’m shocked that she has died. She was in the shop for quite a while and then left.’
A file has been passed to the coroner.