Colleagues who joined a junior doctor in a late-night swim only realised she was missing when they returned home and found they had her clothes.

Thirushika Sathialingam was one of a number of QEQM Hospital clinicians who attended a staff party on Margate Main Sands.

But the 26-year-old – known to her friends as Thiru – was found dead early the following day, after getting separated from a group of revellers in the sea.

During a hearing in Maidstone this week, Dr Helen Tricker remembered how Ms Sathialingam “was definitely drunk, but seemed to be making reasonable decisions”.

“I stayed up on some benches with one of my friends while they swam, and I saw her going onto the beach towards the sea – that was the last time I saw her,” she recalled.

“About 40 minutes later people were coming out of the water. People were scattered around the place getting their belongings.

“We got back to the Nightingales (accommodation for QEQM staff), checked we had our stuff, and at that point it became obvious. We didn’t know whose shoes we had, and in her bag there was her purse and ID.

“We started calling round and one person suggested ringing the Coastguard.”

Ms Sathialingam, from Cliffsend, arrived at the get-together – attended by doctors and medical students – on Friday, September 10.

After some of the revellers complained of feeling cold, the group piled into the Mechanical Elephant Wetherspoon pub nearby, where they remained until closing.

As they filed out of the tavern, a number of the drinkers decided to have a dip in the sea at about 1am.

Fellow doctor Krishan Lodhia said Ms Sathialingam appeared to be exiting the water with the rest of the group when they returned to collect their clothes and belongings from the beach.

He also stressed that the party-goers picked up all the possessions strewn across the beach “to make sure nobody left anything behind”.

Another medic added: “Helen had Thiru’s bag and someone else had her clothes.

“We all started to panic because surely someone wouldn’t walk back home in their underwear.”

A major search was launched at 3am involving lifeboat crews, police, firefighters and a coastguard rescue helicopter.

But Ms Sathialingam’s body was found in the harbour by RNLI volunteers at 5.45am.

Toxicologists found her blood-alcohol levels were more than twice the drink-drive limit.

Meanwhile, post-mortem examinations revealed the cause of death to be submersion under water, with alcohol intoxication a contributory factor.

Recording a narrative conclusion, area coroner Joanne Andrews stated “it is not clear how Thiru became submerged in the water, but there’s no evidence of any third-party involvement”.

“It was only when the group returned to their accommodation, that they noticed they had Thiru’s possessions,” Ms Andrews added.

“They raised the alarm, and she was later found in the harbour.

“No witnesses appeared to have seen [what happened], therefore I cannot return a finding of how she got submerged.”

Ms Sathialingam was born in Sri Lanka and spent much of her childhood in Ilford, before moving to Kent with her family in 2011.

She attended Sir Roger Manwood’s School and studied medicine at Riga Stradins University in Latvia, where she met her boyfriend, Peter Speilbichler. The couple were together for six years.

Paying tribute to Ms Sathialingam, her brother and fellow junior doctor Kaushaliyan told the court she was “loving and caring”.

“We were all so lucky to have had her in our lives,” he said, reading a statement on behalf of the family.

“The start of her professional career couldn’t have been more difficult working on a Covid ward in May 2020.

“She was able to give patients hope by listening to them, and even went to the extent of cooking food at home for a patient who wasn’t used to hospital meals.

“Her hospital described her as a shining star. We all miss her; it leaves us with emptiness and sadness.

“We are forming a charitable foundation in memory of her. She was always caring for the less fortunate and we believe this foundation is the perfect way to remember her.”